Farm ministers from the world's leading industrialised and developing nations gathered yesterday for talks on overcoming a global food crisis that could worsen in these tough economic times.

After the spike in world food prices last year, "there must be stricter rules against speculation... it is unacceptable to be able to get rich by manipulating contracts for basic goods," said Italy's agriculture chief Luca Zaia in a newspaper interview yesterday.

"The first objective must be to increase productivity in developing countries," he told the daily Il Sole 24 Ore.

The meeting of the G8 and G5 agriculture ministers is to run through tomorrow in Cison di Valmarino, near Treviso in the Veneto region of northeast Italy.

It follows on last year's G8 summit in Japan, where heads of state and government instructed their farm ministers to come up with concrete proposals regarding food security and to find ways to limit food price volatility.

Recession has cooled soaring prices which triggered food riots in some poorer nations last year, but officials say it is just a temporary situation. The food crisis could worsen in developing countries during the current economic downturn due to less investment in agriculture.

According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), there are nearly one billion people who are underfed around the world.

The ministers are also set to discuss forming a global partnership on agriculture and food.

"The food situation is unacceptable and production will have to double by 2050 to feed a world with a population that will surpass nine billion," an official with the French delegation said.