The UN Food and Agriculture Organization is holding a three-day summit aimed at tackling hunger around the world.
However, many activists have warned that with leaders of the wealthiest nations deciding not to attend, the conference in Rome on Monday is essentially powerless.
None of the leaders of the G8 group of industrialized nations will be present, apart from Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, at the meeting of delegates from 60 nations.
"It's a tragedy that the world leaders are not going to attend the summit," Daniel Berman, from Medecins Sans Frontieres, said.
Humanitarian agencies had hoped the summit would agree greater assistance to the world's one billion hungry people.
Frederic Mousseau, an Oxfam spokesman, said: "Rich countries are failing to show enough interest and urgency.
"At the G8 in Italy this summer they pledged $20bn for agriculture over three years, so they believe they have done enough. They haven't - and the $20bn is a mirage."
'Moral outrage'
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian President, Muammar Gadhafi, Libya's leader, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, and Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's president, are also slated to attend.
Avvenire, an Italian bishops' newspaper, complained that the draft final declaration failed to mention the $44bn Jacques Diouf, the FAO head, has requested for agriculture in less developed nations.
"Every six seconds a child dies of hunger," Diouf said last week.
"This enormous tragedy is not only a moral outrage and an economic absurdity, but also it presents a serious threat to our collective peace and security."
The draft declaration seeks to commit leaders to a new strategy to promote agricultural development aid, but lacks a target date for eradication of hunger - set by the UN at 2025.
The draft was "just a rehash of old platitudes," Francisco Sarmento, Action Aid's food rights coordinator, said.
The Islamic Development Bank committed $1bn for projects with the FAO on Sunday, the agency said.
PHOTO CAPTION
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (L) greets Ban Ki-moon (R), Secretary-General of the United Nations, during a food summit of Latin American and African heads of state in Rome November 15, 2009.
Al-Jazeera