By Matt Spetalnick
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Mondayordered the release of $200 million (100 million pounds) inU.S. emergency food aid to help alleviate food shortages indeveloping countries in Africa and elsewhere, the White Housesaid.
Bush took action a day after top finance and developmentofficials from around the world called for urgent steps to stemrising food prices, warning that social unrest would spreadunless the cost of basic staples was contained.
"This additional food aid will address the impact of risingcommodity prices on U.S. emergency food aid programs and beused to meet unanticipated food aid needs in Africa andelsewhere," the White House said in a statement.
Bush directed the agriculture secretary to draw down on theBill Emerson Humanitarian Trust, a food reserve for emergencyneeds in the developing world, to free up about $200 millionthrough the U.S. Agency for International Development.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino had said Bush, who wasbriefed about the food crisis during a cabinet meeting earlieron Monday, was "very concerned" and asked senior aides to lookinto ways the United States could help ease shortages.
Washington provided more than $2.1 billion in internationalfood aid in fiscal 2007.
Perino had said the administration was sticking to itsproposal to buy more of the food used in assistance programsfrom suppliers closer to needy countries, which would cuttransportation costs. U.S. agricultural interests have resistedthe idea.
APPEAL FOR ACTION
The White House announcement followed a weekend meeting ofthe International Monetary Fund and World Bank's DevelopmentCommittee in Washington where attendees called for the risingfood prices to be addressed at the highest political levels.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick on Sunday cited theWorld Food Program's appeal to developed countries for $500million by May 1, saying it had received commitments for almosthalf of that, but that it was not enough.
Concerns about food costs took on new urgency as senatorsin Haiti ousted the prime minister after a week of food-relatedrioting in which at least five people died. There also havebeen protests in Cameroon, Niger and Burkina Faso in Africa,and in Indonesia and the Philippines.
At the United Nations on Monday, Secretary-General BanKi-moon said rapidly worsening food shortages around the worldhad "reached emergency proportions."
"We need not only short-term emergency measures to meeturgent critical needs and avert starvation in many regionsacross the world but also a significant increase in long-termproductivity in food grain production," Ban said.
"The international community will also need to take urgentand concerted action in order to avert the larger political andsecurity implications of this growing crisis," he told ameeting of the U.N. Economic and Social Council withinternational financial and trade bodies.
(Additional reporting by Patrick Worsnip at the UnitedNations; Editing by Bill Trott)
(For more stories on global food price rises, please seehttp://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/agflation)
