Washington, Jul. 2 - World Bank President Robert Zoellick Wednesday urged swift action from Group of Eight industrial nations and major oil producers to address a worsening global food and energy crisis pushing more of the world's people into poverty and destabilizing economies.
"We are entering a danger zone," Zoellick wrote in a July 1 letter to Japan's Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who is chairing the G8 summit next week in Hokkaido.
"What we are witnessing is not a natural disaster -- a silent tsunami or a perfect storm. It is a man-made catastrophe and as such must be fixed by people," he said in the letter, which was copied to leaders of the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Britain and the United Nations.
For the first time since 1973, Zoellick said countries were being hit by a combination of record oil and food prices, threatening more countries with rising poverty and social instability. Food riots have already occurred in some 30 countries and unrest over high fuel prices is spreading.
Ahead of the G8 summit in Japan on July 7-9, Zoellick said $10 billion will be needed for emergency food aid and to help countries deal with the double impact of rising food and fuel prices.
The combined effects of rising food and fuel prices in 41 countries -- such those imposed by India and China on rice, or by Argentina, Kazakhstan and Russia on wheat -- have contributed to rising prices and food shortages.
"These numbers translate into broken lives and stunted potential," Zoellick said.
World Bank assessments in another 50 countries estimate that about $3.5 billion will be needed for social programs that target the poor and to distribute seeds and fertilizers to farmers to help boost farm production, he said.
He said immediate action was needed to ensure that the U.N.'s World Food Program was properly funded to get emergency food aid to people in worst-affected areas.
Zoellick said increasing oil production and energy efficiency "would also be constructive" to ease fuel and food costs, which are affected by the rise in oil prices to $142 a barrel.
Additionally, oil producing nations should be urged to contribute some of their profits to alleviate poverty in poor countries hardest hit by the rise in fuel costs.
Zoellick said the World Bank is seeing evidence that countries are fearful that the global food market is breaking down, which could increase food hoarding by governments and push prices even higher.
He said export bans and restrictions on food have contributed to rising prices, with 26 net food exporters either maintaining or introducing such measures.
Zoellick said the G8 and international community should consider a global reserve system for food emergencies.
Such a system would be similar to that of the International Energy Agency (IEA), which coordinates the release of emergency oil reserves by member countries.
"We need to get countries to remove these barriers and in the future I think we should look at the notion of some virtual humanitarian stop system, perhaps building on the type of logic the IEA has used for oil stocks," Zoellick told reporters.
He also appealed for an increase in assistance to the World Bank for grant handouts through a recently established $1.2 billion rapid financing facility, which included $200 million for grants.
But he noted that $200 million has already been distributed as assistance for 12 countries while the World Bank currently has almost $400 million in additional requests from 31 countries struggling with higher food and fuel costs.
Urgent steps were also needed to to get seed and fertilizers to poor farmers, especially in Africa, in time for the next planting season to boost yields, Zoellick added.