ROME, Nov 10 A hundred heads of state and government are to meet in Rome this week for a UN Woi Id Food Summit aimed at halvini; the scourge of malnutrition bv the beginning of the 21st century. reports AFP

The summit comes as more than a million refugees are in danger of starvation along the Zaire Rwanda border and while malnutrition plagues Iran and Cuba due to international em bargoes

But leaders here will be not imposing concrete measures, raising money or setting up new institutions.

Kay Killings worth, the summit's Secretary General, told reporters that the UN gath ering would rather be adopting a global strategy to prevent such problems developing in the fu ture

There will be two main resolutions. the first a "Rome decla ration" proclaiming that everyone is entitled to adequate amounts of healthy and nutritive food.

The second will be an action plan to reduce by half, over the next two decades, the number of

people suffering from malnutrl tion This figure is currently at 841 million people worldwide

A pre-summit report said that without an extra effort in the normal course of events un dernutrition in the developing countries would continue, affecting some 680 million per sons, or 12 per cent of their total population in the year 2010."

The summit, organized by the United Nations food and agriculture organization (FAO) will begin Wednesday and tie the largest gathering of heads of state and government ever in Italy

It is to open with an tnaugu ral message from Pope John Paul 11. followed by speeches bv Italian President Luigi Seal faro. UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, and FAO Director General Jacques Diouf.

The heads of state and gov ernment will address the sum nut from Friday to Sunday but no list has been made available for security reasons. Cuban President Fidel Castro is ex peeled to attend.