Food price rises may hit growth, says Ban Ki-moon

By Daniel Flynn

ACCRA (Reuters) - Higher food prices risk wiping out progress towards reducing poverty and, if allowed to escalate, could hurt global growth and security, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Sunday.

Opening a U.N. trade and development conference in Ghana, Ban pledged to use the full force of the world body he heads to tackle the price rises, which threaten to increase hunger and poverty and have already sparked food riots in Asia and Africa.

"I will immediately establish a high-powered task force comprised of eminent experts and leading authorities to address this issue," Ban said, after a group of the world's 49 least developed countries called on Saturday for such a team.

The U.N. head warned the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) meeting that huge increases in prices of staple foods such as cereals since last year could erase progress made towards goals set by the U.N. of halving world poverty by 2015.

"The problem of global food prices could mean seven lost years ... for the Millennium Development Goals," he said. "We risk being set back to square one."

Steps by several countries to ban exports of rice and wheat or introduce incentives for food imports also threatened to distort international trade and aggravate shortages, Ban said.

"If not handled properly, this crisis could result in a cascade of others ... and become a multi-dimensional problem affecting economic growth, social progress and even political security around the world," he told the conference.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick has warned that rising food prices could push at least 100 million people in low-income countries into poverty.