U.S. plans new steps to ease food shortage: Rice

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States hopes to announce fresh steps in the coming weeks to help alleviate food shortages around the globe, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday.

Rice noted that President George W. Bush earlier this week ordered the release of $200 million in U.S. emergency food aid to help developing countries in Africa and elsewhere.

She said this was on top of an extra $350 million the Bush administration requested from Congress for emergency food assistance this year. In recent years, the United States has provided more than half of all food aid worldwide, Rice said.

"In the weeks ahead, we hope to announce an even more -- to announce further steps to help ease the burden of rising food prices on the world's neediest people," Rice said at a news conference.

"The rapid rise in global food prices is an urgent concern," she said. "Rising food prices are a source of social instability, as we are seeing in a number of places, around the globe."

She said there were many causes for the higher prices, including global demand, devastating droughts and record-high fuel costs.

"But one thing is clear: This is a current emergency, but it has long-term global challenges," she said, adding that ultimately the world must forge a long-term solution to the rising price of food.

One of the most important steps the world could take would be to successfully complete the World Trade Organization's long-delayed Doha round of negotiations for a global trade deal, Rice said. This "would help to increase agricultural productivity and moderate prices," she said.

(Reporting by Susan Cornwell, editing by Vicki Allen)