Washington - Surging commodity prices are leading to serious food shortages in the developing world and prompting a new round of inflationary pressures amid a global economic downturn, the leaders of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank warned Thursday.

IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn warned that there was "a risk of sustained high inflation" due to the rise in food, metal and energy prices over the past year.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick said climbing food prices would set back efforts to reduce poverty by about seven years.

The IMF in a report released Wednesday predicted global growth would slow to 3.7 per cent in 2008 from 4.9 per cent the year before, in part due to an expected recession this year in the United States.

Strauss-Kahn described the twin challenges of dealing with a global economic slowdown and inflation as a battle "between ice and fire" and warned that high food prices risked "undermining all the gains we obtained in reducing poverty."

Food prices have risen 48 per cent since the beginning of 2006, Strauss-Kahn said in a briefing ahead of the traditional spring meetings this weekend between the two institutions.

The World Bank in a report Wednesday blamed much of the rise in food prices on the increasing reliance on biofuels as a source of alternative energy. Biofuels rely on food staples such as corn and sugar to produce energy.

"While many are worried about filling their gas tanks, many others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs," Zoellick said.

Zoellick has called for a "new deal" on global food policy and urged industrial nations to make up a 500-billion-dollar shortfall in financing at the World Food Programme, which many countries rely on for emergency food aid.

The price of rice alone has risen about 75 per cent in the past two months, while the cost of wheat has jumped 120 per cent in the last year, the World Bank said.

"With little margin for survival, rising prices too often means fewer meals," Zoellick said.

The World Bank and IMF meetings this weekend will focus on resolving the financial crisis, easing soaring commodity prices and reforming voting and other procedures within the two lending institutions.

Finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrial nations meet on the sidelines of the spring meetings in Washington on Friday. (dpa)