Toyako, Japan  - The leaders of the world's eight most industrialized countries (G8) warned Tuesday that spiralling food prices and low supplies risked pushing millions more people back into poverty.

"We are deeply concerned that the steep rise in global food prices, coupled with availability problems in a number of developing countries, is threatening global food security," they said in a joint statement issued at a summit in Toyako, Japan.

"The negative impacts of this recent trend could push millions more back into poverty, rolling back progress made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals," they added.

Noting that they had committed over 10 billion dollars to support food aid and ways of increasing agricultural output in some of the world's poorest areas, the leaders called for additional help from other donors.

"We call on other donors to participate along with us in making commitments, including through the World Food Programme (WFP), to meet remaining immediate humanitarian needs and to provide access to seeds and fertilizers for the upcoming planting season," they said.

The head of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, had warned Monday that a combination of bad harvests, rising prices and export restrictions by some countries meant WFP would need up to 6 billion dollars in contributions this year, twice the normal amount.

"And it is likely that WFP will need a similar sum next year," Zoellick added.

G8 leaders said part of the solution would be to promote sustainable second-generation biofuels, which have hitherto been blamed for part of the food price rise.

However, they fell short of creating stockpiles of grains to better cope with future food crises, as had been hoped, saying merely that they would explore such an option. (dpa)