75% price rise caused by Biofuels: WTO report

London, Jul 4 (UNI) Biofuels are responsible for 75 per cent of recent food price rise that is pushing 100 million people below poverty line, a confidential WTO report has stated.

The report goes against the United States claim that an increased food demand from India and China has led to the spiralling prices, the Telegraph reported.

The report, leaked at a crucial time during the world's negotiations on biofuel policy, will put pressure on the Western World to stop using biofuels.

The US and European turned to biofuels in attempts to reduce the greenhouse gases associated with fossil fuels and reduce their reliance on oil imports.

The report based on a detailed economic analysis of the effect of biofuels stated, '' Without the increase in biofuels, global wheat and maize stocks would not have declined appreciably and price increases due to other factors would have been moderate.'' Next week leaders of the G8 industrialised countries are meeting in Japan to discuss what action needed to be taken to alleviate the food crisis. They will be lobbied by campaigners calling for a moratorium on the use of biofuels.

In a letter to Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, World Bank president Robert Zoellick has urged these nations to act immediately to address the ''man-made catastrophe'' of soaring food and oil prices.

''What we are witnessing is not a natural disaster - a silent tsunami or a perfect storm. It is a man-made catastrophe and as such must be fixed by people,'' he said in the letter.

Some 41 countries have lost three to ten per cent of their GDP from rising food, fuel and commodity prices since January 2007.

Over 30 countries have been hit by food riots, as the impact of the crisis reaches the household level.

UNI XC SYU RN1728