World leaders struggle to agree food crisis plan

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

ROME (AFP) — World leaders battled Wednesday to agree on how to tackle the global food crisis, making multi-billion dollar aid pledges but struggling to agree notably on biofuels, sources said.

In a draft of the final declaration to be agreed Thursday, obtained by AFP, they vowed to use "all means" to ease suffering of those left hungry and poor by soaring food prices.

But the draft, a final version of which is due to be agreed on Thursday, includes compromise language on the vexed issue of biofuels, which are promoted notably in the United States but criticized by others.

In what critics would likely see as ducking the issue, they agreed that biofuels present both "challenges and opportunities" -- and say that more research is needed.

"We are...