BERNE – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon began talks Monday with key development agencies on how to tackle the crisis provoked by soaring food and fuel prices.

"This is an exciting time for the United Nations, but it is also a time when we are challenged to exert our best efforts to rise to the expectations that the world is placing on us," Ban said ahead of meetings in the Swiss capital.

The UN was to hammer out a battle plan of emergency measures at the two-day conference in Berne, while exploring other longer-term measures to solve the global food crisis.

The talks will see advocates of protectionism face off against those who favor opening up markets, as well as arguments between both supporters and opponents of biofuels.

Rising populations, strong demand from developing countries, increased cultivation of crops for biofuels and increasing floods and droughts have sent food prices soaring across the globe.

Ban met first with officials from the Universal Postal Union before going in to the main talks with 27 key UN agencies.

Also in Bern were Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the UN's World Food Programme; World Bank President Robert Zoellick; Jacques Diouf, head of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); and Lennart Bage, president of the International Fund for Agriculture Development.

Ban was expected to issue a statement and hold a press conference on Tuesday morning at 0700 GMT (0900 CET).

In Geneva, UN special rapporteur on the right to food Jean Ziegler said the meeting in Berne on Monday marked "an essential day for hungry people around the world."

Ziegler called for a suspension of biofuels which he said is one of the causes of the sharp increase in food prices.

He also criticized efforts by the World Trade Organization to conclude trade liberalization talks, saying that it works against those who are dying from hunger.

"The line taken by Pascal Lamy (director general of the WTO) is completely against the interests of people dying of hunger because it's exactly the protectionist taxes that allow farmers to cultivate food crops," he said.

He also criticized the International Monetary Fund which he claims has "imposed on the poorest countries" the cultivation of non-food products, thereby further cutting down on the cultivation of food produce.

He welcomed IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn's "reversal" on the subject and called on governments to support him to "put a priority on the cultivation of food produce."

Asked about the protectionist measures taken by numerous rice-producing countries, Ziegler said he "understands the attitude of these countries which consider first their own provisions."

But their governments "know that in history, hunger riots can bring down entire states," he said.