New investments and subsidies favouring the production of biofuels should be frozen, the United Nations' new independent expert on the right to food said Thursday.

Such a move could send a strong signal that the price of food crops will nto keep rising, and thus bring a halt to speculation, Olivier De Schutter told a special UN Human Rights Council session on the global food crisis.

In remarks that echoed those of Jean Ziegler, his outspoken predecessor as special rapporteur, De Schutter called biofuels a "major factor" contributing food price inflation, as its production saps up scarce arable land.

He pointed to a study estimating that an extra 100 million hectares (247 million acres) of land would be needed in order for agrofuels to make up five percent of worldwide fuels by 2015.

This, he was, would be "simply not sustainable".

He described as "unrealistic" a US plan to require fuel producers to use at least 36 billion gallons (136 billion litres) of biofuel in 2022 and an EU target of biofuels meeting 10 percent of transport energy demands by 2020.

"By abandoning them (the targets), we would send a strong signal to the markets that the price of food crops will not infinitely rise, thus discouraging speculation on commodity futures," he said.

"I have therefore proposed a freeze on all new investments and subsidies favouring the production of fuel by growing crops on arable and non-degraded lands, when such lands are suitable for the production of food crops."

Biofuels are derived from food produce such as corn, soybeans and sugarcane, and plants such as switch grass and their cellulosic waste.

In response to global warming, industrialised countries have moved to promote such fuels as a greener alternative to traditional fuels. Higher oil prices have meanwhile given impetus to consumers to embrace biofuels.

In recent months, however, biofuels have come under fire for taking up arable land that could be used to grow food thereby contributing to a shortage in produce and, in turn, higher food prices.

Source: Agence France Presse