Washington - World Bank President Robert Zoellick warned that food prices will likely remain high in the long term due to strong world demand and the increasing use of bio-fuels for alternative energy.

The upward trend represents both a threat and an opportunity to developing countries. Their agricultural sectors will enjoy a boom, but much of their populations will suffer hunger due to the lack of affordable foodstuffs, Zoellick told reporters in the run-up to the World Bank and IMF spring meetings in Washington.

Zoellick said that the World Bank expects global food prices to continue rising through 2008 and 2009 before falling slightly in the following years. Detailed forecasts are set to be released Wednesday.

Tackling climate change is also closely linked to the world's development goals, Zoellick said. He warned that too much pressure on emerging countries to adopt clean technologies could hurt growth and scare off nations from further reductions in emissions.

"The core principle is the interests of developing countries," he said. "Our overall drive on this is that climate change is a development issue."

Zoellick reiterated that the global economic slowdown was having a lopsided effect on world growth.

Developing countries have not been hit as hard as in previous down cycles because of "alternative poles of growth" to the United States being created in China, India and other emerging economies, Zoellick said. (dpa)