Japan announces $100 mln in emergency food aid

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan announced on Friday that it would supply around $100 million worth of food aid overseas over the next three months to address the problem of surging world food prices.

Concerns about food security mounted this week as rice prices hit records in Asia and the United States warned that staples for the world's hungry were getting much more expensive.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told a news conference that about $50 million in food aid would be sent to Africa in May in response to an appeal by the United Nations' World Food Program (WFP) and the rest over the next three months.

"In addition to the emergency aid, I think that this is an issue that needs a wide, multifacted response, such as working to increase food production in the medium and long-term, improving the productivity of agriculture and responding to trade issues and climate change," Machimura told a news conference.

Riots have erupted in Africa and Haiti due to the surging price of fuel and food.

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who will host the Group of Eight summit in July, has said he intends to put the problem of rising food prices on the agenda when the rich countries' leaders meet in northern Japan.

The World Food Program's executive director said on Thursday that the cost of feeding the world's hungry had spiked nearly 40 percent amid spiraling food costs and oil prices.

And the international Monetary Fund said the same day it was in talks with governments in 10 countries, mostly in Africa, about increasing financial assistance to cover the soaring cost of food.

(Reporting by Linda Sieg and Yoko Kubota; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)