High food prices continue to hit people in poor countries that spend a large part of their income on food, according to a new report.

The latest UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Food Outlook indicates that the food import bill of the Low Income Food Deficit Countries (LIFDCs) is expected to reach $169bn in 2008, 40 per cent more than in 2007.

FAO calls the sustained rise in imported food expenditures for vulnerable country groups a "worrying development" and says that by the end of 2008 their annual food import basket could cost four times as much as it did in 2000.

International prices of most agricultural commodities have started to decline, but they are unlikely to return to the low price levels of previous years, Food Outlook reports.

The FAO food price index has remained stable since February 2008, but the average of the first four months of 2008 is still 53 per cent higher when compared to the same period a year ago.

"Food is no longer the cheap commodity that it once was. Rising food prices are bound to worsen the already unacceptable level of food deprivation suffered by 854 million people," said FAO assistant director-general Hafez Ghanem.

"We are facing the risk that the number of hungry will increase by many more millions of people."

He added: "Despite a favourable global production outlook, the expected price decline in many basic agricultural commodities during the new 2008/09 season is likely to be limited, because of the need to replenish stocks and an increase in utilization.

"Due to rising utilization, more than one good season is required to replenish stocks and reduce price volatility."

Surging food prices have sparked recent riots in Haiti, Egypt, Cameroon and Indonesia.

Heads of State and Government will address the problem of high food prices and the challenges of climate change, bioenergy and food security at the upcoming June summit in Rome (3-5 June 2008).