Ministers from the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations said development assistance needed to be strengthened and partnerships between traditional donors and new donors, such as emerging Asian countries, increased.

Rising food prices, which were not on the official agenda for the meeting, became a hot topic on the second day of the two-day meeting in Tokyo.

"Spikes in food prices cause serious problems for development as a whole, especially for Africa, and we shared the view that this is something the international community needs to tackle," Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura, who chaired the meeting, said at a joint news conference by the G8 ministers.

"The problem of food will directly hit the lives of poor people.

We reached a common determination that there is a need to take necessary steps," he added, without specifying details.

An official said there had not been enough time to discuss any concrete steps to tackle food prices over the weekend.

Earlier this month, World Bank President Robert Zoellick called for a new co-ordinated global response to deal with spiralling food prices exacerbating shortages, hunger and malnutrition around the globe.

Severe weather in producing countries and a boom in demand from fast-developing countries have pushed up prices of staple foods by 80 per cent since 2005.

Last month, rice prices hit a 19-year high; wheat prices rose to a 28-year high.

Police in Egypt, Cote d'Ivoire and Senegal last week had to quash public protests launched against high food prices.

The ministers' meeting, which lays the groundwork for development issues at the G8 summit, took place halfway into the calendar for the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of eight globally agreed targets to be reached by 2015.

The goals, set in 2000, range from halving the number of people living in poverty on less than U$1 a day, to providing universal primary education and halting the spread of HIV-AIDS.

Experts say most countries may fail to meet them.

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