ADB chief warns a billion Asians at risk from soaring food prices

MADRID (AFP) — The head of the Asian Development Bank called on Monday for an "immediate response" to soaring food prices which he said placed more than a billion Asians at risk of malnutrition.

ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda also warned that the food problem could cut into decades of economic gains in the Asia-Pacific region.

In an inaugural address to the ADB's board of governors meeting in Madrid, he also announced a special fund to combat climate change and its damaging effects, which he termed a "fundamental threat" to the region.

"These are troubling times for the world economy. On the heels of turmoil in the financial markets and economic slowdown in the US and elsewhere, soaring food prices are hitting the poor very hard," he said.

"This price surge has a stark human dimension and has greatly affected over a billion people in Asia and the Pacific ...