"The global food crisis and the solutions that the UN can bring to it will be at the centre of the discussions" which will take place behind closed doors on Monday and Tuesday at the offices of the Universal Postal Union, UN spokeswoman Elena Ponomareva told journalists.

Ban will be joined by the head of the World Food Programme (WFP), Josette Sheeran, as well as World Bank head Robert Zoellick and the director of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation Jacques Diouf.

He will also meet Swiss President Pascal Couchepin and Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey in the evening, before travelling to Geneva on Tuesday to give a lecture at the UN headquarters on the Millennium Development Goals.

Rising populations, strong demand from developing countries, increased cultivation of crops for biofuels and increasing floods and droughts have sent food prices soaring across the globe.

The WFP has warned of a "silent tsunami" as an extra 100 million people who previously did not require help now cannot afford to buy food.

Japan says giving 100 mln dlrs for food crisis
Japan will donate 100 million dollars in emergency aid to help poor countries cope with spiralling food prices, chief government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura said Friday.

Japan has pledged to put the global food crisis on the agenda when it hosts the annual summit of the Group of Eight rich nations in July.

"As an emergency measure, Japan has decided to provide 100 million dollars in food assistance," Machimura told a news conference.

He said Japan would provide 50 million dollars next month through the UN's World Food Programme (WFP), mostly to countries in Africa, and contribute another 50 million within three months.

"Japan will continue to consider further assistance," Machimura said.

Food prices have risen rapidly since the end of 2007, spurred in part by growing appetites in emerging economies such as China and India and by the popularity of biofuels at a time of soaring oil prices.

The WFP warned a special summit on the issue in London this week that the world faced a "silent tsunami" of soaring food prices, saying that another 100 million people freshly need help to buy food.

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has called for talks on the food crisis when leaders of the Group of Eight -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States -- meet at the northern resort of Toyako.

On Wednesday, Fukuda and top EU leaders voiced "strong concern" on the issue and called for urgent action, saying that rising food prices threatened to worsen poverty in developing countries and drag down the global economy.

Japan, which is officially pacifist, relies on aid as a key tool of its foreign policy. But it has given less in recent years as it struggles to tame a huge fiscal deficit left over from stimulus packages to get out of recession in the 1990s.

The Asahi Shimbun, quoting unnamed government sources, said that Fukuda may seek a special supplementary budget to fund the food initiative.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said last week that his government was doubling emergency food aid this year to 60 million euros (100 million dollars).

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