Brussels - The European Union's executive body on Wednesday called for a massive boost to the food aid the bloc gives to its poorest inhabitants, warning that soaring food prices meant that the current system is no longer sufficient.

"Stocks are at an all-time low, the number of needy people has increased and food prices have recently risen sharply ... The (European) Commission believes it is vital to increase spending on the scheme and to allow food purchases on the open market," a statement released in Brussels said.

The commission has therefore proposed increasing the EU's current budget for food aid by almost 70 per cent to roughly 500 million euros (710.7 million dollars) and broadening it to cover more food products, the press release said.

The EU's food aid scheme was set up in 1987, at a time when the bloc's agriculture policy had led to the creation of embarrassing food surpluses such as the "wine lakes" and "grain mountains" which member states then bought to guarantee farmers an income.

At that stage, the scheme allowed EU member states to release the surplus stocks they had bought as food aid to the poor.

However, following changes to the EU's agricultural policy which reduced the scale of the surpluses in the 1990s, the commission began allowing member states to buy extra food on the open market under certain limited circumstances.

The scheme provided food for over 13 million EU citizens in 2006, officials said.

The commission calculates that some 43 million people in the EU are currently at risk of food poverty, which is defined as not being able to afford one meal of meat, chicken or fish every two days.

Given the soaring food prices of the last two years, and the parallel reduction to near-zero levels of the EU's food stocks, the commission now wants EU member states to be allowed to buy food aid whenever surplus stocks are unavailable.

Under the proposal, which has to be approved by member states, each country would have to decide what kind of food it wanted to buy over a three-year period.

The EU's central budget would pay 75 per cent of the total cost over 2010-12, and 50 per cent from 2013. (dpa)