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Italy proposes moving UN food summit to another venue

Italy proposes moving UN food summit to another venue

The Government of Italy has proposed moving a key United Nations meeting on food security from Rome to the coastal resort town of Rimini.

In a letter from the Prime Minister's office to the head of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Italian Government expressed its willingness to bear the additional cost of moving the "World Food Summit: five year later."

Italy's proposal, which has been forwarded to the members of the FAO Governing Council for a decision early next week, also suggests that an agreement on the change should be signed with the UN agency.

The World Food Summit, scheduled for 5 to 9 November, will review the progress made towards the eradication of hunger and to raise both the political will and the financial resources to accelerate the fight against hunger.

At the 1996 World Food Summit, representatives of 185 nations and the European Community pledged to work towards eradicating hunger and set a target of halving by 2015 the number of hungry people - still more than 800 million.