By Matthias Williams NEW DELHI, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma said on Thursday there was a "startling gap" between pledges made by donors to help growing numbers of hungry people and funds received. Donors at a summit in Rome last month promised $22 billion in agriculture and food aid after higher food prices left another 40 million people hungry in 2008. That raises the number of undernourished people in the world to 963 million, the United Nations says. The head of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation, Jacques Diouf, has said only about $2 billion -- less than one-tenth of the funds pledged -- had been received to date, but more was due in coming years. "I dare say that this is a very startling gap between what has been promised and what has been forthcoming so far," the Commonwealth's Sharma told reporters in New Delhi. He said countries were preoccupied with high energy costs and the effects of the financial crisis, but hoped it was "a delay in the pipeline". Sharma, a former Indian diplomat who took over the post last year, said the Commonwealth would address the shortfall in aid at its next summit this year as part of wider discussions on food and energy issues. The 53-member Commonwealth is mostly made up of former British colonies. Developing countries in South Asia such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and poor African countries make up the bulk of the Commonwealth's two billion people. It also includes industrialised nations such as Britain, Canada and Australia. U.N Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon last week called on rich nations to do more to prevent the global financial slowdown from adding to a massive 1 billion people going hungry in the world.Food prices have come down for the time being but the number of hungry people was set to rise again, Ban said. The financial crisis will slash the poor's purchasing power and cause higher unemployment, according to the World Food Programme. (Editing by Krittivas Mukherjee and Katie Nguyen) (matthias.williams@thomsonreuters.com; +91-997 111 0254; Reuters Messaging: matthias.williams.reuters.net@reuters.com))
India's Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma (R) shakes hands with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon before their meeting in New Delhi February 5, 2009. Ban said on Thursday ...
