U.N. call to fight world hunger

U.N. say 10 million are dying of starvation in southern Africa

ROME, Italy -- The United Nations has called for a multi-billion dollar initiative to slash world hunger by 2015.

The Italian-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) proposes to combine investment in farming and rural development with measures to improve access to food.

The FAO report, published ahead of a three-day food summit to be held in Rome in early June, comes as the organisation steps up its campaign to eradicate world hunger.

Without the added investment of $24 billion a year, the FAO say there will still be 600 million people going hungry in 2015.

The figure falls short of targets set at a 1996 summit, which aimed to halve the number of malnourished people to 400 million by 2015.

Anti-hunger programme

Plans include freeing up money to invest in seeds, fertilisers and irrigation pumps. Other proposals include developing and conserving natural resources, expanding rural infrastructure and improving the quality of agricultural research.

The proposals focus mainly on small farmers and hope to increase opportunities amongst rural dwellers who make up 70% of the world's poor.

The report adds increased public investment must be accompanied by "sufficient private resources."

There are also plans for food-for-work initiatives and school feeding programmes to ensure pregnant women, nursing mothers and children under five do not go hungry.

In an interview with Reuters news agency, FAO chief Jacques Diouf called for increased political will to combat world hunger.

He told Reuters he hoped to build an international alliance against hunger.

The U.N. say at least 10 million people in four southern African countries risk starving to death after two successive years of poor harvests. (Full story)

The U.N. World Food Programme and the FAO say about four million tons of food will need to be imported to Malawi, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Swaziland over the next year.