Italy intends to intensify its efforts to combat world hunger but governments alone cannot resolve this crisis, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said in a message marking World Food Day on Thursday.

Italy will do more, he observed, "well aware that it is essential to carry this through in full in order to have an effect on the structural aspects of the crisis."

"Governments alone cannot defeat hunger," he added.

World Food Day is an occasion "to reflect on the need to work together, on all levels, to guarantee that right to food established by article 11 of the United Nations Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights," Frattini said.

"In the short, medium and long term every nation, every player is called on to do their part ... with the UN acting as an essential coordinator between its own agencies and international financial institutions," the foreign minister added.

The Group of Eight (G8) most industrialized countries "must also do its part and Italy, which will hold the rotating presidency in 2009, intends to place the food emergency among its top priorities," Frattini said.

The foreign minister went on to recall how Rome is the home to the UN's chief food agencies -- the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Food Program (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD -- which were "an exceptional operating team for the international community."

Together with FAO, Italy organized some 1,000 cultural and social initiatives throughout Italy from October 1-16 to spread awareness about the world food crisis entitled Italy and the UN Against World Hunger.