The World Food Program has launched an "extraordinary emergency appeal" for at least 500 million dollars, the Financial Times reports.

"We urge your government to be as generous as possible in helping us to close this gap, which stood at 500 million dollars on February 25 and has been growing daily," WFP executive director Josette Sheeran wrote in the letter sent to donor countries over the weekend.

"The rations for those who rely on the world to stand by them during times of abject need" may be cut, she said.

She added the money is needed by May 1.

"This is the new face of hunger, increasingly affecting communities that had previously been protected," the letter, published on Monday, quoted UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as saying.

Growing use of crops such as wheat and corn to make biofuels has put world food supplies in peril, the head of Nestle Company warned on Monday.

Other reasons behind the rapidly increasing food prices are the rising population, the strong demand from developing countries, and the increasing frequency of floods and droughts as a result of climate change.

RZS/PA