Angela Merkel announced a series of measures to take during the summit of the G8 industrialised countries, Japan, to combat the food crisis worldwide, which may have repercussions on international security.

In an interview with daily “Tagesspiegel Am Sonntag”, the German Chancellor said that a “wide range of measures to ensure the food world” should be adopted at the summit of the eight major industrialised countries, taking place tomorrow and then Toyako in northern island of Hokkaido.

Such measures, based on a conception of the German Government, aim to “alleviate the short term the food crisis” and “according to a long-term strategy to increase agricultural production worldwide.” According to the magazine “Der Spiegel”, Merkel warns against the devastating effects that could have a global food crisis of long duration.

This crisis could “endanger democracy, destabilize states and create problems for international security,” states the magazine, citing a document of six pages sent last Monday by the Chancellor to his colleagues the other seven countries (Canada, the U.S., France, United Kingdom, Italy, Japan and Russia).

The G8 countries during this summit will create a working group to tackle the food crisis worldwide, also reported in last Monday the Japanese daily “Yomiuri Shimbun” citing government sources in Tokyo. According to the newspaper, that the working group will examine the possibility of removing certain export restrictions that prevent the countries most in need of access to food surpluses in rich countries.

Five thousand demonstrators linked to non-governmental organisations, trade unions and groups of activists protested yesterday through the streets of Sapporo to protest against the meeting. The protest, held in a peaceful way, resulted from the arrest of two demonstrators, one of which a truck driver who participated in the procession, and from which messages were given anti-globalisation.

Another forum is a demonstrator who, they say, surpassed by “a few centimeters” the line demarcated by the police for the parade. The protesters, who travelled about three kilometres on foot, contest, as always happens on these occasions, economic inequalities in the world.