* Italy's Berlusconi only G8 leader at summit * Final Declaration dilutes aid, hunger targets * Gaddafi grabs most headlines with Islamic conversion bid By Silvia Aloisi ROME, Nov 18 (Reuters) - An absence of many world leaders undermined this week's U.N. food summit from the start, and its final declaration shows little progress was made in the fight against hunger. U.N. officials put on a brave face throughout the Nov. 16-18 Rome meeting, saying it had won broad support for the need to focus on longer-term agricultural development -- rather than emergency aid -- to help poor countries feed themselves. "It's a half-full, half-empty glass," said Jacques Diouf, Director General of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation, who had called the summit to keep attention high on the plight of the more than one billion people going hungry. "We made some progress to reverse the decline in agricultural investments ... but it did not go as far as FAO would have wished to see," he told the final news conference. The no-show by heayweights from most of the world's biggest economies lowered the summit's profile, and did not help efforts to push malnutrition and food shortages to the top of the political agenda. "It's a big disappointment that the leaders from the biggest and richest countries did not come," said Gawain Kripke of aid agency Oxfam. "Without them it's hard to imagine how the world will attack these challenges of hunger and increasing agricultural productivity," he said, adding that the summit had thrown only "crumbs" to those who do not have enough food to eat. Less than a third of the 192 heads of states and governments invited by the FAO showed up, with many countries sending their agriculture ministers instead. Italy's Silvio Berlusconi was the only G8 head of government at the summit -- as the leader of the host country he all but had to attend, and by doing so he won a delay in a corruption trial against him which had been due to restart on Monday. AID, HUNGER TARGETS DILUTED The FAO had hoped the summit would yield firm promises to boost farm aid to $44 billion a year, reversing nearly 30 years of neglect. Diouf also wanted leaders to commit to eradicating malnutrition by 2025. But the summit declaration merely pledged to eliminate hunger "at the earliest possible date", and set no targets nor a timeframe for more investments in agricultural development. The declaration was also non-committal on divisive issues such as how to counter market speculation, reduce food price volatility and regulate land purchases abroad by rich, food- importing nations. "If we don't have the heads of state, who have the authority to negotiate, we skip the real problems, and reduce food security to a merely technical issue -- whereas it has a political, financial and social dimension," Diouf said. A G8 pledge in July to spend $20 billion in farm aid in the next three years stole the thunder from the U.N. summit and scheduling it at a time when world attention is focused on climate change negotiations probably did not help. "We had all told Diouf not to organise this summit," an EU diplomat told Reuters. With the final declaration adopted on the first day, all the negotiations were done in the run-up to the summit, turning the actual event in a parade of mostly Latin American and African leaders taking the podium for lengthy speeches. Many participants left after the first day, and media interest waned. An event held by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who recruited 200 Italian women through a hostess agency and tried to convert them to Islam, ended up grabbing most headlines. (additional reporting by Svetlana Kovalyova; editing by David Stamp)
Poinsettia plants are pictured at the Serre des Iles greenhouse in Levis, November 17, 2009. Poinsettia is a popular Christmas plant that originated from Mexico and Guatemala. REUTERS/Mathieu Belanger (CANADA ENVIRONMENT ...
