The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Wednesday it would finance projects fighting bird flu and foot-and-mouth disease in Latin America and the Caribbean region.

FAO Director Jacques Diouf said at a regional FAO meeting in Caracas that the FAO was financing four plans in the Latin America and the Caribbean region to boost veterinary services there.

The FAO would work with the World Animal Health Authority, which already had programs to control cross-border animal health problems, he said.

Diouf praised previous animal health programs in Mexico, Chile, Guatemala, and El Salvador, which had eliminated the H5N2 and H7N3 strains of bird flu and prevented epidemics in the region.

Latin America has not yet caught the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, which has killed over 100 people, mostly in Asia.

Venezuela's Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel also introduced the Venezuelan government's projects promoting food security on the same day.

Rangel said that his government was promoting rural growth by training, financing and giving resources to rural communities seeking to produce their own food, describing the arrangement as "participatory" and "sustainable."

"There is strong political will to ensure food security in Venezuela," said Rangel.

The 29th Latin American and Caribbean conference of the FAO began on Monday in Caracas. Drawing ministers from 33 Latin American and Caribbean countries to discuss topics like food security and fighting hunger and poverty, the conference is the largest regional gathering organized by the FAO.

Source: Xinhua