Toyako, Japan - The European Union is to provide an extra 1 billion euros (1.57 billion dollars) in aid to help farmers in poor countries as part of its response to the global food crisis, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Monday.

Speaking in Japan ahead of the Group of Eight (G8) summit, Barroso said: "I am announcing today our intention to propose a new 1 billion euro facility to support agriculture in developing countries, aiming at generating a strong and rapid agricultural supply response."

The funds would be taken from unspent EU budget money and would be used to buy fertilizers and seeds "to help poor farmers in developing countries," Barroso said.

The EU executive has already provided 550 million euros in aid for 2008 and a further 250 million euros for 2009. The extra 1 billion euros would therefore raise the total number of agricultural aid provided by Brussels to poor countries in 2008 and 2009 to 1.8 billion euros.

"The commission has moved fast to respond to the food price crisis, and its impact in particular on developing countries," Barroso said.

His proposal now needs to be formally approved by the European Parliament and the EU's member states, with commission officials expecting this procedure to be completed by November.

The commission chief also urged G8 leaders not to backtrack on their earlier pledge to raise the amount of annual aid given to the developing world by 50 billion dollars by 2010. At least half of this extra money should go to Africa, they said at the time.

"We have to show that we are ready to deliver on our commitments. There is no going back," Barroso said, noting that Europe had provided 60 per cent of worldwide development aid in 2007.

Barroso's comments came as charities and aid organizations warned that G8 leaders were preparing to drop their 50-billion-dollars pledge, which they made at their meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland in 2005.

"If we don't see the numbers in the (summit's) communique, it is a betrayal of the promise," said Max Lawson of Oxfam.

"We desperately need to see more money, and it has to be new money. The 50 billion (dollars) are absolutely critical," he said.

Oxfam singled out France and Italy, saying the two G8 members were "quietly stepping away from their commitments," but praised Germany, Britain and the United States for raising their share of aid. (dpa)