Food-producing countries must relax export controls and divert production away from biofuels to prevent millions more people being driven into poverty by higher food prices, the head of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, said in Washington on Thursday.

Without action to increase the supply of food, an extra 10 million people could fall below the extreme poverty line of $1.25 a day over the next few months, in addition to the 44 million pushed into poverty by soaring food prices over the past year, he warned.

A report by the World Bank found prices had jumped by 36 per cent since April 2010, driven in part by higher fuel costs connected to events in the Middle East and north Africa,

Higher transport and fertiliser costs have sent the price of wheat, maize and soya back to levels last seen in the price boom of 2008.

“More poor people are suffering and more people could become poor because of high and volatile food prices,” said Zoellick. “We have to put food first and protect the poor and vulnerable, who spend most of their money on food.”

He was speaking ahead of the IMF and World Bank spring meetings later this week, which will be attended by finance ministers and central bankers.

A further 10 per cent increase in food prices could drive an additional ten million people below the poverty line, the World Bank reports, while a repeat of the last year's increases would affect 34 million already close to the poverty line.

Some analysts have argued that a slowdown in global growth will bring down food prices from their recent peaks.

Goldman Sachs said in a note that oil prices would begin to retreat from recent highs along with other commodities.

In recent days it has slipped, dropping from a high of $127 to $120. But rival analysts remain concerned that oil prices will continue their long upward path, albeit with a few blips along the way.

The World Bank's food price index found the cost of several key foods for developing countries shot up last year, including maize by 74 per cent and wheat by 69 per cent, although rice prices have been stable.

It said that in the Kyrgyz republic, where the poorest 10 per cent of the population spends 73 per cent of their budget on food.

A wide range of measures were needed to tackle further price rises, the World Bank said, and should be adopted by food producing nations quickly to prevent further food poverty and famine, including “targeting social assistance and nutritional programmes to the poorest, removing grain export restrictions, and relaxing biofuel mandates when food prices exceed threshold levels”. —Dawn/ Guardian News Service