Targets to cut the number of hungry people in the world will not be met without far greater international effort, the United Nations food agency has warned.

Kenyan Catholic Archbishop Okoth has urged the government to introduce price controls for essential commodities and also suggested measures to ensure food security for ordinary citizens.

The most severe drought in a decade is fuelling a food crisis in Afghanistan that threatens millions with food shortages and possible starvation, says global humanitarian agency Church World Service.

The chair of the Episcopal Conference of the Catholic Church in Kenya has warned that more than ten million Kenyans are at immediate risk of hunger, because of mismanagement and corruption by the government.

Without immediate, massive intervention and assistance, starvation in Kenya will become a deadly reality, according to a new assessment report from global humanitarian agency Church World Service.

The plea "Give us this day our daily bread" needs to be heard by political leaders meeting in Rome on the global food crisis, says Jean Blaylock, looking at the response of world church representatives.

While the food crisis in North Korea continues largely unnoticed in the wider world, due to the country's isolation, a North American Anabaptist peace church is taking quiet steps to provide agricultural assistance.

Catholic charities in the US called yesterday for more to be done to help the estimated 35 million Americans who are impacted by hunger. At the White House they called for the strengthening of federal nutrition programs.

In his audiences and public liturgical duties this week, Pope Benedict XVI, leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, has highlighted the concerns of World Food Day and International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

Church and development organisations across Africa say the extreme rainfall experienced by the continent this summer is the worst in decades and is having a devastating impact on the food supply. They are warning that immediate action is needed.