By Robin Pomeroy and Stephen Brown
ROME (Reuters) - A summit on the global food crisis was atrisk of closing without a declaration of intent on Thursdaybecause of squabbling over side issues.
Delegates from 183 countries at the Rome talks missed theirWednesday deadline for agreeing a final statement about"eliminating hunger and securing food for all".
"The food crisis which the world faces today is so seriousthat it would be disastrous for the survival of mankind if theconclusions reached suffer the same fate at this historicsummit," said Ghana's President John Kufuor.
The problem was not the heated debate on biofuels, whichare accused of diverting food to gas tanks, but disagreementbetween opponents and supporters of communist Cuba aboutmention of U.S. sanctions, and other marginal orregion-specific issues.
"They will look at a new draft which they can eitherapprove, try to amend or, in the worst case, reject," said aU.N. official as the last day of the meeting began.
The summit was called by the United Nations' Food andAgriculture Organisation to seek ways to secure food suppliesin the face of rising demand -- especially from rapidlydeveloping Asian countries -- poor harvests and rising fuelcosts.
Those factors have contributed to a doubling of commodityprices over the last couple of years which the World Bank sayshas put 100 million people at risk of joining the 850 millionalready going hungry.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Developmentsees prices of rice, corn and wheat retreating from peaks butstill up to 50 percent higher in the next decade. The FAO saysfood production must rise 50 percent by 2050 to meet demand.
"They say it is not time anymore to talk, that it's time toact. I am waiting for them to act," said Momar Ndao, aSenegalese campaigner who took part in price riots in March.
BRUTAL PRICE RISE
Some questioned the worth of the summit which began withspeeches from 44 leaders. President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal,a sceptic of international attempts to solve hunger and acritic of the FAO, said it was a waste of time.
"There's been a brutal rise in prices (of food) and we weretold there was a threat hanging over the world and all theheads of state were called to attend," Wade told Reuters.
"I thought it was going to be to answer the question aboutwhat should be done, but it wasn't that at all. It was just aconference like any other and that's why I was disappointed."
Others believed the summit had fulfilled its role alreadyby focusing world attention on the hungry and on poor farmers.
"This is at the top of the global agenda and it's none toosoon," said Josette Sheeran, head of the World Food Programmewhich delivers emergency supplies. "Hunger is on the march."
"Talking is important. Of course talking is very differentto action, but it's a start," said Matthew Wyatt, deputy headof U.N.'s International Fund for Agricultural Development.
"For the last 30 years agriculture and food security havebarely featured on the international agenda."
British-based poverty campaigners Oxfam said it was "veryeasy to dismiss this food summit as a talking shop". Oxfam GBhead Barbara Stocking said the meeting "could be a steppingstone to better policies and the money to implement them."
Although the summit was not meant to produce promises ofaid or set new global policies, it has put hunger on the agendaof July's Group of Eight summit in Japan. By then U.N.Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is due to have issued an actionplan.
The Rome debate on the potential benefits to poor farmersof new global trade rules will also feed into a push toconclude the so-called Doha round of World Trade Organisationtalks, which reach a potentially conclusive phase in comingweeks.
The United States, which is diverting increasing amounts ofits maize harvest into automobile fuel, came under attack fromsome countries and poverty campaigners who have called for arethink of policies to promote fuel made from foodstuffs.
Washington acknowledges the spread of biofuels has added tothe demand for crops, especially maize, and contributed to foodinflation but says it is only by a marginal amount.
(Additional reporting by Laura MacInnis and Phil Stewart inRome and Diadie Ba in Dakar; Editing by Diana Abdallah)
