The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Jakarta

ASEAN trade ministers agreed Saturday to help each other during the global food crisis and to take measures to maintain the stability of rice prices and boost production.

"(ASEAN) will help each other in stabilising the global (food) price and not take steps that will disrupt the price of rice," Indonesian Trade Minister Marie Elka Pangestu said on Elshinta radio.

"Ensuring the stability of rice (price) is the priority," she said.

Pangestu said the ministers had agreed to continue exports provided domestic needs were being met.

"We will not export if our domestic needs are not enough. Like Thailand, they have announced that they have a surplus in rice production and they will not stop exports," she added.

Pangestu added that although Indonesia is producing enough rice for domestic consumption, there is not enough surplus to start exporting.

She said the ministers also agreed to increase production and the approach would be further discussed by agriculture ministers.

Global food prices have nearly doubled in three years, according to the World Bank, sparking riots last month in Egypt and Haiti, protests in other countries and restrictions on food exports from Brazil, Vietnam, India and Egypt.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick has said two billion people across the world are struggling with high food prices, and 100 million people in poor countries may be pushed deeper into poverty by the crisis.