Governments must take action to regulate surging food prices and stop them being driven by speculative forces, French Agriculture Minister Michel Barnier said on Monday.

"We cannot, and we must not leave food for people ... to the mercy of the rule of the market alone and to international speculation," he told BFM radio. "I think we Europeans must ask this question within all international organisations," he said, adding there was insufficient global governance on the issue. Top finance and development officials from around the globe called on Sunday for urgent action to stem rising food prices, warning social unrest would spread unless the cost of basic staples was contained.

The World Bank and Britain have said the issue of rising food prices needs to be addressed at the highest political levels. Concerns about food costs took on new urgency as senators in Haiti ousted the prime minister after a week of food-related rioting in which at least five people died. There have also been protests in Cameroon, Niger and Burkina Faso in Africa, and in Indonesia and the Philippines.