Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on Saturday held talks with Martti Ahtisaari, UN secretary general's special envoy for humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa, on issues of ensuring food security.

Meles discussed with Ahtisaari on ways of ensuring food security in parts of the country that are exposed to recurrent food shortage in a sustainable manner, according to a senior government official who attended the discussion.

The UN World Food Program has said more than 3 million Ethiopians need emergency food aid this year due to repeated droughts.

Meles said the number of people needing emergency food aid has increased due to late launching of the safety-net program.

Under the international food aid program, five million chronically hungry people are supposed to be given food or cash --around six Ethiopian birr (0.70 US dollars) -- in return for doing public works like building roads.

The program, set up in 2004, ranks as one of the largest aid programs in Ethiopia, with almost half of the 520 districts included in the scheme.

The European Union, the United States and the World Bank are all providing financial support for the 200-million-dollar-a-year program, which won praise at the 2004 G8 meeting of wealthy nations in the United States.

According to the senior government official, who declined to be named, Meles told the UN envoy that the program should be efficiently executed in a bid to avoid the problems.

Meles and Ahtisaari also exchanged views on issues of making resettlers self-supportive through providing health, education, and other services at the resettlement sites, the official added.

They also discussed ways of garnering the support of donors which is crucial in materializing the food security strategy, another food aid scheme set up in 2004 in Ethiopia, whose aim is to reduce food insecurity faced by a vulnerable 15 million Ethiopians, according to the official.

The former Finnish president was appointed as UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's special envoy for the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa in June 2003. He is now on a four-day visit to Ethiopia.

Source: Xinhua