UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Tuesday called on world leaders attending the annual UN debate to take action against hunger and poverty by providing funds and fostering fair trade.

    The Brazilian president asserted that the widespread hunger prevailing in the world today lies at the root of a host of other global ills.

    "Hunger nurtures violence and fanaticism," he said. "A world where people starve will never be safe."

    Lula argued that the international community has the 50 billion U.S. dollars needed to combat the hunger now plaguing 840 million people worldwide.

    "Think of the cost of wars and other conflicts. All here know that the second Gulf War may also have cost hundreds of billions of dollars to date. With much less we could change the sad reality of a large share of the world's population," he said. "We could save millions of lives."

    He hailed initiatives such as the plan for a "solidarity levy on international air tickets," as well as the creation of an International Drug Purchase Facility to combat AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

    But the Brazilian president argued in favor of further measures, particularly in the area of trade. "It is essential that we break the bonds of protectionism," he said. "Subsidies granted by richer countries, particularly in agriculture, are oppressive shackles that hold back progress and doom poor countries to backwardness."

    He said that "while trade-distorting support in developed countries amounts to the outrageous sum of 1 billion U.S. dollars a day, 900 million people get by on less than a dollar a day in both poor and developing countries" and called this situation "politically and morally untenable."

    Negotiations through the World Trade Organization offer hope for change, he said, while warning that failure of the "Doha Development Agenda" would have negative repercussions in both the political and social fields.

    On the need for UN reform, he called for an expansion of the Security Council to include developing countries as permanent members. "This would make that body more democratic, legitimate and representative." Enditem