ROME - Ministers and officials from the Near East will gather in Iran next month for a regional conference of the UN food agency to discuss preparations for the world food summit, the agency announced Thursday.

The agenda of the March 9-13 meeting in Tehran includes preparation for the June summit in Rome and discussion of long-term plans to fight drought, which the UN says is the most serious challenge to agriculture in the Near East.

Ministers are due to meet on March 12-13, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said.

It said states would also examine the problem of low forest cover in the region. "More than 70 developing countries are affected by low forest cover, involving 300 to 400 million people," FAO said.

They will also discuss issues such as biodiversity for agriculture, forestry and fisheries in the region.