SAPPORO (Japan) - FARMERS and activists from around the world gathered here on Saturday to protest soaring food prices, kicking off a major rally ahead of next week's summit of the Group of Eight rich nations.

Thousands of people are expected to take part in Saturday's protest amid tight security, with some 21,000 police officers on guard near Toyako, the northern Japanese lakeside resort where world leaders will meet from Monday.

Around 100 farmers and fishermen waved banners and shouted slogans in a park in central Sapporo, the closest major city to Toyako, calling for the G8 to pay more attention to food producers.

'Japan imports the majority of its food from overseas, so we don't starve ourselves. But the government should stop controlling rice production in the country.'

Activists from charity Oxfam International warned of the impact of soaring food prices and climate change on world poverty as they performed their customary skit mocking the eight world leaders including Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and United States President George W. Bush.

Wearing traditional Japanese kimonos, they sang a karaoke version of the Abba song Money, Money, Money.

'This isn't the time for a holiday, this is the time for sorting out problems,' said Ms Lucy Brinicombe of Oxfam International. 'They shouldn't be distracted from finding solutions for the food crisis and climate change.'

World Bank president Robert Zoellick issued an urgent call this week for action on rising food prices at the G8 summit, saying that the crisis was a 'man-made catastrophe' overwhelming the bank's resources.

Global food prices have nearly doubled in three years, according to the World Bank, setting off riots in parts of the developing world.

Leaders of the eight major industrial powers - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States - are reportedly set to agree on a new system of 'food reserves' to assist hungry nations when they meet.

Activists said that immigration authorities barred the entry of more than two dozen South Koreans who planned to take part in Saturday's anti-G8 rallies.

South Koreans have developed a reputation as some of the most impassioned protesters, with one farmer stabbing himself to death in 2003 at global trade negotiations in Mexico. -- AFP

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