The Haitian capital was paralysed by food riots yesterday as the United Nations gave warning that soaring food prices were spurring unrest around the world.

Rioters returned to the streets in Port-au-Prince a day after UN peacekeepers had to fire rubber bullets to prevent hungry Haitians from storming the presidential palace. Columns of smoke rose over the city as demonstrators, demanding that the Government take action over the rising price of foodstuffs such as rice, beans and oil, set fire to barricades made from tyres.

At least five people have been killed and more than 20 injured. Protesters compared the burning hunger in their stomachs to bleach or battery acid.

President Préval made a televised address last night appealing for calm, and said he would meet food importers to try to lower prices. “The solution to the high cost of living is global and we are paying the price for all the bad policies applied for 20 years in Haiti,” he said. “The demonstrations and destruction won't make the prices go down or resolve the country's problems,” Mr Préval said. “On the contrary, this can make the misery grow and prevent investment in the country."

The unrest provided dramatic evidence of the destabilising effect of accelerating food inflation around the globe. Food prices are surging because of increased demand from emerging markets such as China and India, a drought in grain-producing Australia and competition with plant-based biofuels.

The UN says that global food prices have risen 65 per cent since 2002, with grain rising 42 per cent and dairy products 80 per cent in 2007 alone. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in a recent report that Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Mozambique and Senegal have all seen unrest in recent weeks linked to food and fuel prices. “There is a risk that this unrest will spread in countries where 50 to 60 per cent of income goes to food,” Jacques Diouf, the FAO director-general, said yesterday in Delhi.

John Holmes, the top UN humanitarian official, gave warning this week of a “perfect storm” of rising food and fuel prices and the negative effects of climate change. “Current food price trends are likely to increase sharply both the incidence and depth of food insecurity.

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