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Poverty extravaganza
Delegates attending the World Food Summit in Rome have come under criticism for their shopping sprees and contributing towards the traffic problems in the city
Some 80 world leaders, almost all of them from developing countries, met in Rome for the four-day event aimed at reviving the political will to halve world hunger by 2015 and save millions of lives.

An Italian lawmaker was quoted by Reuters as saying that the summit is just an excuse for delegates and their families to go shopping in the Italian capital where traffic was constantly snarled by convoys of visiting dignitaries - a few of which have been spotted heading to Rome's smart shopping district rather than the summit venue.

A senator in the Northern League party, a member of Italy's ruling coalition, said in a statement that the delegates' high living provided a shocking contrast to the poverty and hunger seen in many of their countries.

"There are mission representatives here who, in the light of day and without the slightest respect for their citizens, go on mad shopping sprees for clothes and designer goods and eat in the best restaurants while back home so many children are going hungry," said Piergiogio Stiffoni. The conservative Italian daily Libero also denounced the attitude of some of those attending the meeting.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga representing Sri Lanka addressed the summit last Monday. President Kumaratunga's spokesman Hareem Peiris reacting to the reports said that he did not wish to comment about other foreign delegates, but as far as the President was concerned, other than attending the summit she only called on Pope John Paul II during the stay there.

He said it was generally the tendency for the visiting delegates to get about and go on shopping sprees resulting in traffic congestion, but it would be the responsibility of the host country to make necessary arrangements ensuring the least inconvenience.

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