ITALY/UN SUMMIT: A United Nations food summit opens in Rome today, aiming to raise billions of dollars to fight global hunger that kills an estimated one person every four minutes.
The gathering follows a 1996 event that set a target of cutting the number of hungry people to 400 million by 2015, from 840 million.
Since then the number has only dropped to 815 million, with war, natural disasters and political indifference taking its toll.
"In this era of global abundance, why does the world continue to tolerate the daily hunger and deprivation of more than 800 million people?" said Mr Jacques Diouf, director general of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.
However, the goals of this latest in a series of UN meetings risk being overshadowed by the unexpected appearance of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who has managed to sidestep a EU travel ban to attend the conference.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation, which is staging the summit in its Rome headquarters, says dozens of world leaders are flying in for the four-day event, but with most richer nations sending only junior delegations, Mr Mugabe is likely to steal the limelight. He arrived in Rome on Saturday.
Western governments say Mr Mugabe is partially responsible for food shortages affecting millions of people in Zimbabwe following the invasion of productive, white-owned farms over the past two years by militants loyal to the president. Mr Mugabe, who blames drought for the crisis, arrived in Rome on Saturday to demand more aid.
"Of course we don't want him here, but we had no choice. International law says he has the right to attend U.N. summits," said one Italian official.
The summit is expected to seek an additional $24 billion a year in agriculture and rural investment, to reverse a recent slide in farm aid and help cut the number of hungry by 20 million each year to meet the 2015 target.
Thousands of protesters, including Indonesian, Mexican and African farmers, marched through Rome on Saturday ahead of the summit to demand that world leaders change their tactics in the war on hunger.