A top Chinese official in charge of poverty alleviation on Monday said poverty reduction presses for a solution from both individual countries and the international community.

"Poverty is born out of political, economic, social and historical factors. The problem gets even worse in an irrational international political and economic order amidst unbalanced development," Liu Jian, minister in charge of poverty alleviation in the Chinese State Council, told a world leaders' meeting on action against hunger and poverty, held Monday at the United Nations.

Liu said hunger and poverty had become a global problem menacing world peace and human development.

Liu put forth three prepositions of the Chinese government on the elimination of hunger and poverty. They include:

-- First, joining hands to foster a favorable international environment for poverty reduction.

"In the political field, the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and universally recognized norms of international law must be observed in maintaining world peace and stability. In the economic field, efforts should be made to formulate fair, reasonable, open and transparent international rules for world trade, investment and finance so that developing countries can have their fair share of development dividend," Liu said.

-- Second, taking up "our respective responsibilities and obligations" while boosting collaboration.

Liu said developing countries need to work out poverty reduction strategies in light of their own situation and change the state of underdevelopment through self-reliance and hard work.

"Developed nations, on the other hand, are duty-bound to render more assistance to their developing counterparts, making good their commitments on financial aid, technology transfer, debt relief and market access in particular," he said.

He said international organizations must play a greater role in the global campaign against poverty, pressing for implementation of follow-up actions of relevant international conferences and exploring new ways to better support the global efforts on poverty reduction.

-- Third, mobilizing resources for the elimination of poverty.

liu said the roles of government, the business sector and the civil society should be given full play and complement one another in poverty reduction. "All available resources should be mobilized and diverse modalities of collaboration be explored through extensive dialogue and consultations."

Heads of state and government from nearly 60 countries were among those who attended the half-day meeting on the eradication of hunger and poverty, jointly organized by Brazil, France, Chile and Spain, and under the auspices of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.