United Nations Radio

The Least developed countries, or LDC's, have called for a "new deal" to tackle the international crisis caused by soaring food prices.

The call came from ministers and other high-level officials of the group meeting at the 12th session of the UN Conference on Trade and Development in Ghana.

UN Radio's Donn Bobb is in the Ghanaian capital of Accra and files this report.

"The least developed countries want donor countries and creditor institutions to provide additional aid to enhance domestic agricultural production, build infrastructure, including distribution and storage systems and remove subsidies to farmers in the developed world - subsidies which they say discourage food production and present barriers to trade.

Ambassador Deb Bhattacharya is Bangladesh's representative to the World Trade Organization and United Nations agencies in Geneva. He says the situation of the least developed countries has been further aggravated by the high prices of food and energy.

'So the new deal that we are calling for is essentially revisit the mechanisms through which one can support this vulnerable group of countries both in terms of food security on the one hand, energy security on the other hand, but more importantly getting good market access into the developed countries for their exportables.'

There are 49 countries, most of them in Africa, that make up the LDC's.

They account for 13 per cent of the world's population but control less than 1 per cent of the global income, trade and foreign direct investment.

This is Donn Bobb reporting for United Nations Radio in Accra, Ghana."

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