UN chief Ban Ki-moon will chair an annual meeting of UN agencies in Switzerland late this month that will largely focus on the global food crisis, UN spokeswoman Michele Montas said yesterday, reports AFP.

She told a press briefing that the meeting in Bern, the Swiss capital, would bring together chief executives of UN agencies and institutions, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

She said the agenda would be “to a great extent about food emergencies and food supplies.” Montas added that the UN secretary general was mulling convening a world summit on the food crisis.

However she said the idea was tentative as two major international meetings on the issue are already planned: a special debate of the UN Economic and Social Council in May and a Food and Agriculture Organization summit in June.

With a sharp rise in the price of basic foodstuffs, protests have erupted in countries across the world including Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, eIvory Coast, Madagascar and Mauritania.

Anger over high prices and low wages erupted into violence last Saturday in Bangladesh when 10,000 garment workers rioted near the capital Dhaka, smashing cars and buses and vandalizing factories.

Last weekend, Haiti’s premier was ousted in a no-confidence vote after more than a week of violent demonstrations over rocketing food and fuel prices that left at least five people dead, according to an unofficial count.

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