The UN food summit issues its recommendations amid calls for greater regional, as well as international, cooperation, reports Doaa El-Bey In his opening speech before the three-day UN food summit President Hosni Mubarak called for urgent international dialogue and cooperation in order to tackle the global food crisis. Mubarak said that in addition to strengthening the UN role dialogue should include regional organisations in the developed as well as developing world. "The world needs a forum that gathers exporters and importers of fuel in the developing and developed countries in order to draw up a strategy to deal with the food crisis in the short, medium and long term," he said. Gamal Bayoumi, secretary-general of the Arab Investors' Union, said that food security constituted a growing problem for Egypt and other Arab states which are dependent on imports to feed their growing populations. "One big reason for the problem is the rising prices of oil which not only weakens the value of the dollar but has an inflationary impact on food prices. Negotiations between food producers and energy producers aimed at reducing or controlling oil prices are urgently needed." UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon opened the summit on Tuesday by calling for increased food production to help ease the crisis. He emphasised that the world must "respond immediately" while at the same time developing a long-term strategy to "improve food security". Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda urged participants to release stockpiles of food to ease shortages in poorer countries, offering more than 300,000 tonnes of imported rice held by Japan. As expected the production of biofuels, which uses land that could otherwise be given over to growing food, proved a contentious issue. President Mubarak called for an international review of biofuel production. "There must be a serious and fair dialogue that reconsiders the production of ethanol in light of the stress it places on the production of agricultural commodities," he said. Some states tried to avoid the issue while others challenged the assumption that producing ethanol results in increased food prices. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva rejected claims that processing fuel from sugar cane had contributed to the current crisis while at the same time criticising the production of fuel from corn and wheat. Brazil is the world's second largest producer of biofuels. The US, the world's largest producer, was loath to discuss the issue. "The Arab states must work together and try and bridge the food gap," says Bayoumi. "We have learned from previous negotiations, including the Doha round, that when the international community fails to deliver, regional alliances are the only alternative." More than 40 world leaders and 100 senior officials joined representatives from the UN and other world organisations for the summit. Biofuels, trade restrictions, poor harvests, agricultural subsidies and increased transport costs have all been blamed for the food crisis. During his visit to Italy to attend the summit, Mubarak met with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano and Prime Minster Silvio Berlusconi to discuss Middle Eastern issues as well as bilateral relations. The two presidents witnessed the signing of several cooperation agreements covering fishing, the restoration of the Egyptian Museum and the setting up of an Egyptian-Italian University. They also called for greater cooperation in science and technology between the two states in 2009. Mubarak also met French President Nicolas Sarkozy to discuss Middle Eastern issues, particularly the situation in Lebanon and the Union for the Mediterranean. Italy is among Egypt's major trading partners. Trade between the two states reached four billion euros in 2007 and is expected to increase following Mubarak's visit. Although the summit focussed on food security, political problems between Iran and Israel raised their head in discussions. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used the summit to attack Israel, saying on Tuesday that Europe was now suffering the political and economic burdens that had come with their support of the artificial, Zionist regime. Jewish groups protested against Ahmadinejad's presence at the summit, saying it was a disgrace to host someone who had repeatedly predicted Israel's demise. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's attendance at the summit was also controversial, and was opposed by both Germany and Britain. Britain's International Development Minister Douglas Alexander, who headed the British delegation, described Mugabe's presence as obscene given how he has systematically impoverished his own nation. Four million Zimbabweans now rely on food aid to survive. Meanwhile, Mugabe accused Britain of fomenting Western efforts to effect illegal regime change in his country by crippling it economically.
