World leaders at a UN-sponsored food summit vowed today to redouble efforts to halve the number of hungry people by 2015, but failed to resolve long-standing differences over how to go about it.
Underscoring the divide between the haves and the have-nots, the heads of only two Western countries, Italy and Spain, showed up for the start of the four-day event, which the United Nations has billed as a milestone on the road to eradicating hunger.
By contrast, the leaders of dozens of developing nations have descended on Rome, including shunned Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, who managed to circumvent a European Union travel ban to attend the meeting.
Against a backdrop of looming famine in southern Africa, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan opened the summit with a ringing call to halt "the gnawing pain of hunger."
Delegates immediately approved a declaration dubbed the "International Alliance Against Hunger," renewing a pledge made at a previous food summit in 1996 to cut the number of hungry to 400 million people by 2015 from more than 800 million.
Since 1996, only an estimated 25 million people have come off the "hungry list" and the UN says an additional $24 billion in agricultural aid is needed each year if the target is to be met. At present, just $11 billion is spent annually.
Rich nations are likely to oppose calls for more cash and will also reject demands they slash annual farm subsidies that total around $300 billion. The UN says the handouts make it hard for developing countries to compete in global markets.