http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1107822004<edit>
"The greatest scandal is not that hunger exists but that it persists even when we have the means to eliminate it. It is time to take action," said a declaration signed by 110 nations and adopted at the close of a World Leaders Summit on Hunger held at UN headquarters.
But the US poured cold water on the project, with the leader of the American delegation, agriculture secretary Ann Veneman, dismissing it.
"Economic growth is the long-term solution to hunger and poverty," she told the meeting. "Global taxes are inherently undemocratic. Implementation is impossible."
Brazil’s president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva criticised the US for failing to endorse the pledge.
"How many more times will it be necessary to repeat that the most destructive weapon of mass destruction in the world today is poverty?" said Mr Lula. "We must harness globalisation. We must turn it into a positive force."
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