UN warns of deepening food crisis

The FAO says two-thirds of the world's hungry live in Asia

The global rise in food prices has pushed an estimated 40 million more people into hunger this year, the UN food agency says.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says there are now 963 million undernourished people around the world.

The head of the FAO, Jacques Diouf, said the situation was unacceptable "at the dawn of the 21st Century".

He called on the US President-elect, Barack Obama, to hold a summit next year to put an end to the crisis.

"As a result of rising food prices [since 2005], 75 million people were pushed into chronic hunger," said Mr Diouf, who was unveiling an annual report on world food insecurity.

"This trend has continued, dragging an additional 40 million into hunger this year," he said.

He added that for many countries, the Millennium Development Goal of reducing hunger by half by 2015 was becoming increasingly difficult to achieve.

"This sad reality should not be acceptable at the dawn of the 21st Century," he said.

'Morally unacceptable'

"Even the objective of cutting by half the number of hungry by 2015 is morally unacceptable."

The report says that although prices of major cereals fell by more than 50% from their peaks earlier this year, they remain high compared to previous years.

It says that nearly two-thirds of the world's hungry live in Asia, while in sub-Saharan Africa one person in three is chronically hungry.

Mr Diouf has called on wealthy countries to invest $30bn (£20bn) a year in agriculture in developing countries.

"Thirty billion dollars is nothing compared to subsidies and support in OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] countries… nothing compared to the billions of dollars being spent in all developing countries to face the [ongoing global] financial crisis," he said.

The agency also warned that reduced demand from industrialised countries due to the global financial downturn could threaten exporters in developing countries.