G8 leaders to set up task force on food crisis: report

Leaders from the Group of Eight industrial powers will agree to establish a task force at their summit next month to tackle the world food crisis, a report said on Monday.

The group will aim to address the immediate problem of food shortages in poorer countries as well as address longer-term challenges such as boosting food production, the Yomiuri Shimbun said, citing unnamed government sources.

The working group is also expected to discuss removal of export restrictions and directing global food stockpiles to those most in need, the daily said.

The report came after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he would press G8 leaders at their July summit in Japan to tackle the world food crisis, as well as climate change and the flagging fight against global poverty.

The G8 is made up of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

G8 leaders are expected to issue a statement on the food crisis at the summit in the northern Japanese resort town of Toyako, senior Japanese official Masaharu Kohno has said.

G8 finance ministers warned at their meeting earlier this month that soaring oil and food prices pose "a serious challenge to stable growth worldwide" and may worsen poverty and stoke global inflation.