March 02, 2008	Sunday	Safar 23, 1429

WASHINGTON, March 1: The United States will drastically reduce emergency food aid to some of the poorest countries this year because of soaring food prices, The Washington Post reported on Saturday.

Citing unnamed officials, the newspaper said the US Agency for International Development was drafting plans to cut down the number of recipient nations and the amount of food provided to them.

A 41pc surge in prices of wheat, corn, rice and other cereals over the past six months has generated a $120m budget shortfall that will force the USAID to reduce emergency operations.

That deficit is projected to rise to $200m by the end of the year.

The USAID is reviewing all of the agency’s emergency programmes.

“We’re in the process now of going country by country and analyzing the commodity price increase on each country,” The Post quotes Jeff Borns, director of USAID’s Food for Peace programme as saying. “Then we’re going to have to prioritise.”

—AFP