"Don't tell me, for the love of God, that food is expensive because of biodiesel. Food is expensive because the world wasn't prepared to see millions of Chinese, Indians, Africans, Brazilians and Latin Americans eat," Lula told reporters.

Brazil has repeatedly argued that it has plenty of unused land to plant crops for biofuels and that current production was still too small to affect food prices.

Lula, a former union leader, rebuffed accusations by Jean Ziegler, UN special rapporteur for the right to food. Ziegler this week called biofuels a "crime against humanity," though he referred mainly to US ethanol derived from corn.

"The real crime against humanity is to discredit biofuels a priori and condemn food-starved and energy-starved countries to dependence and insecurity," Lula said at a conference of the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization in Brasilia.

Some of Brazil's neighbours, led by oil-rich Venezuela, warned this week that biofuels could increase malnutrition in Latin America.

Lula said he was "shocked" that biofuel critics failed to mention the impact that high oil prices had on food production costs, such fertilizers. "It's always easier to hide economic and political interests behind supposed social and environmental interests," he said.