The World Bank on Thursday unveiled a $1.2 billion fast-track funding facility to help combat the impact of rising food prices on the poor. The facility includes a $200 million trust fund which will pay for grants targeted at the world's poorest countries. The facility will be used to speed up the financing of safety net programmes, including conditional cash transfers and school feeding programmes. It will also support food production by supplying seeds and fertiliser, as well as providing budget assistance to countries that have cut food tariffs. In addition the bank is establishing a multi-donor trust fund to leverage financial support for small farmers ahead of the upcoming critical planting season. Overall World Bank support for global agriculture and food is set to increase from $4 billion to $6 billion next year, which includes more than $350m in new lending for agriculture in Africa and an extra $150 million for Latin America. Regional organisations in Latin America, Africa and Asia have announced emergency funding in the past month to mitigate the impact of the food crisis. Rising food prices have triggered riots in 30 countries. The World Bank initiative comes ahead of a United Nations summit in Rome next week when the bank and other multinational institutions hope to galvanise support and find more donor money to tackle the food crisis. A World Food Programme call for $755 million in donor funds to help meet a budget shortfall this year was met last week when Saudi Arabia pledged $500 million in assistance. "Along with our partners, these initiatives will help address the immediate danger of hunger and malnutrition for the 2 billion people struggling to survive in the face of rising food prices, and contribute to a longer-term solution that must involve many countries and institutions," Zoellick said. The $200 million emergency grant funding will be capped at $10 million for each poor country which applies for the money. Grants totalling $25 million were approved for Djibouti, Haiti and Liberia on Thursday. "The World Bank has shown impressive leadership on the food crisis in the last few weeks. We need to see similar political momentum and serious response from next week's meeting in Rome," Elizabeth Stuart, senior policy advisor at Oxfam, said. The World Bank's plan comes as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation confirmed an earlier report by the Financial Times that food prices would remain high for the next 10 years, although they would fall from current near-record levels. The organisations said in their Agricultural Outlook that the world needed to reconsider the use of genetically-modified organisms to boost agricultural production, as well as embark on a "serious review" of biofuel policies.