VP HOLDS TALKS WITH FAO DIRECTOR GENERAL

Rome, Nov 18 (ANTARA) - Vice President Boediono held talks with Director General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Jacques Diouf on the sidelines of the world food summit here on Wednesday.

Boediono also met with Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Dato Muhyiddin Yassin and Executive Director of the World Food Programme Jossete Sheeran.

The meetings took place after the Indonesian vice president delivered his speech to the world food summit earlier in the day.

The results of the meetings were still unclear. Boediono was scheduled to give a press conference at 02.00 p.m. local time (08.00 p.m. western Indonesian time).

Boediono was during the meetings accompanied by Agriculture Minister Suwarno, among others.

In his address to the summit, Boediono proposed global food reserves to assist countries which are in dire need of food in emergency.

"Such initiative has been implemented in our region. We have adopted the ASEAN Integrated Food Security (AIFS) framework and the Strategic Plan of Action on ASEAN Food Security (SPA-FS)," he said.

Under the framework, ASEAN member states plus three countries were in the process of building rice reserves for several purposes, he said.

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