The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Geneva

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will host a meeting of key agencies next week in the Swiss capital Berne to discuss the growing global food crisis, the UN said Friday.

"The global food crisis and the solutions that the UN can bring to it will be at the centre of the discussions" which will take place behind closed doors on Monday and Tuesday at the offices of the Universal Postal Union, UN spokeswoman Elena Ponomareva told journalists.

Ban will be joined by the head of the World Food Programme (WFP), Josette Sheeran, as well as World Bank head Robert Zoellick and the director of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation Jacques Diouf.

He will also meet Swiss President Pascal Couchepin and Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey in the evening, before travelling to Geneva on Tuesday to give a lecture at the UN headquarters on the Millennium Development Goals.

Rising populations, strong demand from developing countries, increased cultivation of crops for biofuels and increasing floods and droughts have sent food prices soaring across the globe.

The WFP has warned of a "silent tsunami" as an extra 100 million people who previously did not require help now cannot afford to buy food.