Blaming each other cannot solve food price issue: Saran

"Whether it is the global food crisis or energy crisis or climate change, in all these issues there is a global dimension. These issues cannot be resolved by blaming each other," Shyam Saran, Prime Minister's Special Envoy on Nuclear issue, said in an interaction with members of the Indian Women's Press Corps here.

The former Foreign Secretary was commenting on President George W Bush's remarks that growing demand in India was a reason for rise in world food prices.

Noting that food price issue was not just an India problem or a problem of the US, he said it was an issue that concerned the entire world and hence all countries needed to work together to resolve it.

"We have to learn to work together even on the issue of dealing with the food crisis," he said.

He added that Bush's statement had a positive aspect to it as well. "It is a recognition of the distance India has travelled as a result of its successful economic development," Saran said.

He said Bush had spoken about the growing prosperity of India when he talked about the country's middle class that was now bigger than the entire population of the US.

Close on the heels of Bush's remarks linking Indians' food habits to rising global prices of commodities, the US has now partly attributed the surge in oil futures to the increased demand in India and China.