United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director, Jacques Diouf, holds a hunger strike to highlight the plight of the hungry ahead of a global food summit.

Diouf launched his 24-hour hunger strike on Saturday and urged "people of goodwill everywhere" to follow suit in solidarity with one billion hungry people worldwide.

"I hope that through these gestures we will raise awareness, and build pressure from public opinion to ensure that those who can change this situation are able to do so," noted Diouf.

"We have the technical means and the resources to eradicate hunger from the world so it is now a matter of political will, and political will is influenced by public opinion," he went on to say.

The UN authority on food said that his move is intended to draw world leaders' attention at Monday's Global Summit on Food Security to an estimated 15,000 daily deaths due to chronic malnutrition on the earth.

UN Chief Ban Ki-moon welcomed the motion and pledged to follow Diouf's example on Sunday.

UN's Monday summit on food is meant to help eradicate hunger and push politicians worldwide to help secure sufficient food for all.

FAO hopes to win annual pledges of at least USD 44 billion dollars in food support funds from over 60 participating heads of states in order to help poor nations cope with food scarcity.

GHN/MMA