Protests greet Rome food summit

Anti-globalisation protesters march through the streets of Rome

ROME, Italy -- Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has defied a EU ban imposed because of his conduct in recent elections to travel to Rome for a United Nations summit on world hunger.

The African leader's presence is not the only controversy at the the four-day talks, hosted by the Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which starts on Monday.

Environmental and anti-globalisation groups are targeting the summit and will protest about genetically modified food and the treatment of poor farmers by multinational companies.

On Saturday thousands of protesters marched peacefully through Rome to air grievances over GM food and other agriculture issues.

With memories of the violence that left one protester dead and the city of Genoa heavily damaged during the G-8 summit last summer, Italian authorities ordered heavy security for the march.

Police helicopters followed the route, armoured vehicles were parked at traffic junctions and tight clusters of officers guarded possible targets of anti-globalisation protesters, such as U.S. fast food outlets.

The thousands of protesters included African, Indonesian and Mexican peasants carrying flags for "food sovereignty" demanding that world leaders change their tactics in the war on hunger.

Organisers had predicted that about 50,000 marchers would show up, and after it began, put their numbers at 40,000. Police did not give a crowd estimate.

FAO officials hope to press donor countries into keeping earlier promises to halve the number of hungry people in the world by 2015. The pledges were made at similar summit here five years ago, but progress has come up short.

More than 100 heads of state and ministers are expected to attend. The weekend protest drew those pushing for land reform as well as those against the use of pesticides and genetically modified food.

The U.N. said it was expecting Mugabe to be in Rome for the summit

A key issue is the lack of access to markets for poor farmers. Environmental and farmers' rights groups have planned their own meeting on the outskirts of Rome.

The United States argues that the creation of drought- and insect- resistant crops through genetic manipulation ensures greater food security.

But opponents say genetically tampered-with crops can jeopardise health and the environment. Anti-globalisation movements say production of genetically altered foods mainly benefit multinational companies.

U.N. officials said they expected Mugabe to meet Secretary-General Kofi Annan in the city on Monday.

"We have set up an appointment for Mugabe to meet the secretary-general in Rome therefore we do expect him to be in Rome," U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard told Reuters on Saturday.

The 15-nation European Union, of which Italy is a member, imposed a visa ban and froze the overseas assets of Mugabe and 19 of his close associates in February after Zimbabwe had thrown out the head of an EU team of election observers.