U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday he is moving "at full speed" pushing efforts to tackle the world food crisis.

Ban said he will hold the first meeting of his recently formed United Nations task force on food next Monday.

He also said he is sending invitations to all world leaders to join him at a high-level meeting to work out a strategy for addressing food shortages and soaring prices. The conference, organized by the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization, will be June 3-5 in Rome.

"This crisis did not come out of the blue," Ban told reporters. "It grew out of more than a decade of neglect and ineffective development policies. We need a new start."



While there have been "promising steps" in recent days to deal with emergency food needs, the entire U.N. system needs to lead and act together "to boost agricultural development, particularly in Africa and other regions most affected," he said.

The secretary-general said he is urging government leaders not to adopt measures that distort international trade in food and push up prices. He also called for immediate action to get seeds and fertilizer to small farmers.

Ban was asked about criticism from President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, who urged the U.N. on Sunday to dismantle the FAO, calling it an ineffective money-eater that he blamed for most of the current food crisis.

While expressing sympathy for the frustrations of Wade and other African leaders, Ban defended the FAO, saying the agency has led international efforts since 1945 to promote agricultural productivity and humanitarian assistance to people affected by food shortages.

Ban said he has been working very closely with the FAO's director, Jacques Diouf, a Senegalese national, "on how we can address this issue in the short-term, mid-term and longer-term."

Wade said he blamed the FAO as an institution and not Diouf, whom he helped select. He said the FAO's work was "duplicated by others apparently more efficient," such as the British charity Oxfam, the U.N. World Food Program, and the U.N. International Fund for Agricultural Development.

Ban, who just returned from West Africa and Europe, emphasized "the gravity of the emergency and the need for an urgent response" to food problems, warning that the stakes are high.

"If not properly handled, this crisis could cascade into multiple crises affecting trade, development and even social and political security around the world," he said. "The livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people are threatened."

The secretary-general said the leaders of the West African nations of Liberia and Ivory Coast warned him during his trip "that the food crisis could derail their efforts to recover from years of conflict."

"The first thing I will do, back here in New York, will be to get our task force on the global food crisis moving at full speed," Ban said.

Ban announced the formation of the task force last week and said he will lead it. U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes will act as coordinator and Dr. David Nabarro, the U.N. official coordinating the global fight against avian influenza, will be the deputy coordinator.

"My task force will study the root causes of the crisis and propose solutions - to be executed decisively through coordinated global action - at the upcoming food summit in Rome early in June," Ban said.