UN chief warns more could go hungry in crisis year

By Martin Roberts

MADRID (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Tuesday said rich nations had to do more to prevent the economic crisis from adding to an already intolerable 1 billion people going hungry in the world.

Food prices had come down for the time being but the number of hungry people was set to rise again, Ban told the High Level Meeting on Food Security for All in Madrid.

"Continuing hunger is a deep stain on our world. The time has come to remove it forever. We have the wealth and know-how to do so," Ban said.

"We worked hard to bring food assistance to those who needed it in 2008. I expect we will need to work harder in 2009, this year of recession," he said.

The two-day Madrid meeting sponsored by the United Nations and other international organisations such as the World Bank followed a summit held in Rome last year at which donors pledged $22 billion in agriculture and food aid.

Aid groups say few of the promised funds have been disbursed. U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation head Jacques Diouf told Reuters about $2 billion had been received to date, but more was due in coming years.

"A billion people are suffering from extreme hunger, so it's obvious the currently existing systems aren't doing their job," said Oxfam spokesman Alexander Woollcombe. "There needs to be demonstrative progress for these meetings to have any meaning."

Conference host and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said his government would spend 1 billion euros in farm aid and food security over the next five years.