New York - Emergency food stocks maintained by countries around
the world are at their lowest levels in 30 years, contributing to the
surge in global food prices, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said
Thursday.

The situation has put the WFP and relief organizations in a
difficult situation to meet the needs of the world's most vulnerable
populations, said WFP director Josette Sheeran from her Rome-based
headquarters.

WFP, which had an annual budget of 3.1 billion dollars, has urged
donors to provide an additional 500 million dollars in 2008 so it can
meet demands in poor countries, where the prohibitive cost of food has
prompted riots and threatened people with starvation.

"I call this a new phase of hunger because millions of people, who
were not in the urgent category six months ago, have been pushed into
that category, and we are seeing people, who are already vulnerable,
who are now at great risk of malnutrition," she said.

The people threatened with malnutrition including children and pregnant women.

Sheeran cited the needs of Iraqi refugees, including those in
Syria, as well as requests by Afghanistan, Haiti and Sudan's Darfur
region. The Afghan government alone asked for 700 million dollars in
food aid in 2008.

The spikes in food prices in recent months have added 100 million
people to the category of people living on less than 2 dollars a day
around the world, which had been estimated at nearly 1 billion people.

Sheeran said the WFP has been forced spend 40 per cent more to buy
the same amount of food for those in need. WFP normally provide food
aid to 80 million to 90 million people a year.

The World Bank this month said global food prices have risen 83 per
cent in the last three years. Wheat prices worldwide have jumped 120
per cent in the last year alone.

Sheeran said the hunger is provoking instability, which has
happened in 30 countries where food riots had been documented in recent
months. The 40 countries that usually export food have restricted their
exports because of the risk to their stocks, which has in turn
aggravated conditions in importing countries.

Sheeran said hunger has spread to urban areas in some countries and
people have changed their diets to adjust to the higher costs.

Even in the United States, two of the largest supermarket chains -
Wal-Mart subsidiary Sam's Club and Costco - have begun restricting
sales of rice to prevent hoarding by restaurant owners worried about
the continuing rise in prices.

The Italian government donated on Wednesday 3.5 million dollars to
the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), which is part of the
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in New
York. The donation is to boost UN capability to provide food aid. (dpa)