United Nations Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday called for concerted global efforts to address the food shortage and poverty gripping much of the world.

In a message delivered on the World Food Day, the UN chief said the current financial crisis is exacerbating concerns about rising food and fuel costs, which have already left 75 million people " deeper into the abyss of hunger and poverty."

He warned that a widespread lack of food triggers other threats, from social unrest to environmental degradation, while undermining the well-being of an entire generation on whom the world will depend in the future.

"On this World Food Day, I urge governments, organizations and citizens to forge meaningful partnerships to overcome these challenges so that we can meet all of our Millennium Development Goals and, ultimately, usher in a world free of hunger and poverty, " Ban said.

"Even before prices started rising, 800 million people were going to sleep hungry every night," Ban said. "And now, with energy costs rising and the price of food having more than doubled in the past year alone, an additional 100 million people could be pushed into hunger and poverty."

He said the critical challenges, interrelated and global in nature, require a global response.

"These crises are not short-term, and will therefore require the sustained attention of governments, donors, international and regional organizations, civil society and the private sector for years to come," Ban said.

He noted that the world body had set up a High-Level Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis, which put together a Comprehensive Framework for Action to chart the way forward for governments, the donor community, civil society and the private sector.

"World Food Day is an opportunity to build on this momentum by exploring its theme of climate change and bio-energy in the context of global food security," Ban said.

"These are life-and-death matters that we must confront with serious thought and resolute action," the UN chief said.

World Food Day is celebrated each year on Oct. 16, the day on which the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations was founded in 1945.

The theme of this year's World Food Day is "the challenges of climate change and bio-energy."