UN Chief Urges International Community to Act Quickly to End Hunger

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, June 10, 2002

UN Chief Urges International Community to Act Quickly to End Hunger

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UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the international community to take prompt action to achievethe goal of cutting by half the number of hungry by 2015 at the World Food Summit, which opened Monday in Rome.

��"We have no time to lose if we are to reach our target, which is also one of the Millennium Development Goals agreed by world leaders in September 2000," said the U.N. chief, addressing the opening session of the summit.

He noted that every day more than 800 million people worldwide,among them 300 million children, suffer the gnawing pain of hungerand the diseases or disabilities caused by malnutrition.

"Hunger is one of the worse violations of human dignity. In a world of plenty, ending hunger is within our grasp. Failure to reach this goal should fill every one of us with shame," he said.

Annan said the current summit must give renewed hope to those 800 million people by agreeing on concrete action, stressing that "there is no point in making further promises."

The secretary-general urged countries to break the vicious cycle of hunger perpetuating poverty and poverty worsening hunger,and reduce hunger and poverty over the long run.

Among the major measures he listed to fight hunger and poverty are giving small farmers and rural communities greater access to land, credit as well as relevant technology and knowledge, improving rural health care service, education and rural infrastructure, and giving women a greater role to play.

"The time for making promise is over. It is time to act. It is time to do what we have long promised to do, eliminate hunger fromthe face of the earth," Annan said in conclusion.

Annan is attending the four-day food summit which is aimed at reaffirming the political will and mobilizing the resources neededto achieve the hunger elimination goal set by the last food summit.

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