VOA常速英语2008年-France to Double Food Aid

French President Nicolas Sarkozy says his country will double emergency food aid to meet a crisis sparked in several developing countries over sharply rising food prices. Lisa Bryant has more on Mr. Sarkozy's remarks made at a major international conference in Paris.

President Sarkozy said he would double emergency food aid to roughly $100 million this year for poor countries. He also called for a global partnership¹ between governments, the private sector² and international financial institutions to fight soaring food prices that have sparked riots and protests in about half a dozen developing countries.

Mr. Sarkozy said the international community needs to think about helping³ developing countries develop their food-based agriculture so their populations can live off their production - rather than condemn⁴ them, he said, to producing crops for export.

The French president spoke⁵ at a key climate change conference in Paris. Experts say the rising food prices are partly due to climate change - and because fields once used to grow food crops are now used to cultivate crops for cleaner-burning biofuels. Food prices have surged 40 percent since midyear last year.

In an interview on France's Europe 1 radio Friday, International Monetary⁶ Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said cultivating biofuels instead of food posed a moral problem - and suggested a moratorium⁷ on biofuel cultivation⁸.

Strauss-Kahn warned there would be more food riots to come, characterizing the situation as very serious. He said hundreds of millions of people would be affected⁹ by malnutrition¹⁰ and hunger. He said the world must find a response.

The two-day Paris conference, which ended Friday, aimed to reach agreement among 17 major carbon-dioxide emitting countries on drafting a new climate change treaty by 2009.