Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said he had hoped that the world's major industrial nations would have agreed to do more to fight the global food crisis at their meeting which wrapped up Wednesday in Japan.

"It's true that perhaps a more forceful, more active response to the food crisis would have been desirable, even if this issue is not only in the hands of the G8," Zapatero told a joint news conference with his visiting Dutch counterpart Jan Peter Balkenende.

"Because behind this crisis there are human lives at risk," he added.

The Dutch prime minister meanwhile appealed for an increase in aid money to "develop agriculture in developing nations with new technologies that can boost production."

The G8 -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States -- had simply renewed their 2005 pledge to double their aid to Africa at the summit, he added.

Regarding climate change, Zapatero said the commitments reached by the G8 could be "considered as another step but not definitive," while Balkenende said "the results of the G8 were not those that were expected."

G8 leaders agreed at the summit to "consider and adopt" the goal of achieving a cut of at least 50 percent in worldwide carbon emissions by 2050, but they made no targeted promise for action in the medium term.

They also failed to make headway in talks with leaders of the growing emerging economies on tackling global warming.

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