ROME: The United Nations yesterday urged a summit on global food crisis to save nearly 1 billion people from the grip of hunger by lowering trade barriers and removing export bans.

"Nothing is more degrading than hunger, especially when (it's) man-made," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told world leaders, who are likely to disagree over the link between biofuel production and high food prices.

Wealthy nations are spending billions of dollars on farm subsidies, wasteful and excess consumption of food, and on arms, said the head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which is hosting the summit.