MANAGUA, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Cuba's Vice President Esteban Lazo Hernandez said Wednesday that the current world food crisis is essentially caused by the unequal and unjust distribution of world health and the unsustainable non-liberal model of economic development pursued by some countries in the last 20 years.

    Lazo, member of the Political Bureau of the Cuba's Communist Party, also said high oil prices, the U.S. war against Iraq, and the United States and European Union's use of grains and cereals for bioenergy production further aggravated the problem.

    Lazo made the remarks at a food summit in the Nicaraguan capital of Managua, which began Wednesday morning and ended at noon with a Managua Declaration calling for efforts to tackle the world food crisis.