In a bid to check the soaring prices of basic needs of daily life in Afghanistan, the Afghan government has decided to import food stuff worth 50 million U.S. dollars, presidential spokesman Hamayon Hamidzada said Tuesday.

"The government has decided to buy food items worth 50 million U.S. dollars and in this regard the Ministry for Commerce is in contact with Pakistan and Kazakstan," Hamidzada told a press briefing here.

The prices of daily needs particularly flour, rice and cooking oil have sharply gone up since early this year and in many cases is beyond the purchase power of the ordinary citizens in the war- torn country.

A sack of 50kg flour was sold 1,100 Afghanis (around 22 U.S. dollars) in early January but today it costs 2,600 Afghanis (around 57 U.S. dollars). Like flour, the prices of rice and cooking oil have also been soaring.

However, Hamidzada described the price hike as an international phenomenon, adding the government would do its best to import food items as soon as possible and keep the prices as low as affordable to the common people of the country.

(Xinhua News Agency April 22, 2008)