ROME (AP):

Pope Benedict XVI decried the worsening plight of the world's one billion hungry yesterday as a United Nations (UN) food summit rallied around a strategy of more help to farmers in poor nations, but rebuffed a UN appeal to commit billions to the plan.

In a show of broad consensus, some 60 heads of state and dozens of ministers from other nations pledged to substantially increase aid to agriculture in developing nations to help them become more self-sufficient in food production.

The world's wealthiest nations put forward the strategy at the Group of Eight summit this summer in L'Aquila, Italy.

Despite endorsing the strategy in the first hours of yesterday's meeting, the 192 participating countries did not commit to the US$44 billion a year for agricultural aid that the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation says will be necessary in the coming decades.

Soon after the delegates approved the declaration, Pope Benedict took the floor to decry "opulence and waste" in a world where the "tragedy" of hunger has been steadily worsening. Benedict's speech marked the first time a pontiff attended such a gathering since Pope John Paul II took part in a 1996 food summit.

The pontiff, lending his moral authority as head of the world's one billion Catholics, also called for access to international markets for products coming from the poorest countries, which he said are often relegated to the sidelines.