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Global Cooperation Key to Solving Food Crisis, Says Assembly President

Tackling the current food crisis requires a unified global response, United Nations General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim said today in Rome.

Mr. Kerim characterized the crisis as a "perfect storm" - a convergence of factors such as droughts, increased biofuel production, surging demand for food, among others - in his address to the foreign policy committees of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Italian Parliament.

"We face a real global emergency, which needs a unified global response," he said, stressing that the crisis threatens to roll back the development gains of recent years, such as lifting 400 million people out of poverty.

But this predicament is a "win-win situation" for the international community, the President stated, as it could trigger the creation of policies to further trade efficiency, increase agricultural production and curb the vulnerability of the world's poorest.

"It is incumbent on all of us to find new ways of dealing with the global challenges and international emergencies we face, or we risk becoming trapped in outdated institutional frameworks that day by day become more of a status-quo," he declared.

Regarding reform of the Security Council, Mr. Kerim told the committees that the 15-member body "does not reflect anymore the realities of the 21st century and thus needs to adapt its working methods and composition."

Restructuring the Council "must be part of creating a more flexible, dynamic forum capable of acting with greater international legitimacy and authority," he added.

Also today, the role of the UN in world affairs and the Assembly's priority issues were discussed in a meeting between Mr. Kerim and former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini, the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee.

The President will conclude his official programme in Italy tomorrow with talks with Mayor Letizia Moratti in Milan before travelling to Abu Dhabi for the last leg of his five-country tour that has also taken him to Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Austria.

Source: United Nations

judythpiazza@newsblaze.com