Details of an initiative aimed at strengthening food security for East Asian countries were released in Beijing yesterday, as China expands its role in addressing the region's crop crisis.

The initiative, which calls for the creation of an early-warning system on food safety as well as the expansion of food trade and opposes trade protectionism within the region, is expected to be signed today at the end of the first annual roundtable on East Asia food security.

Global food security is faced with not only traditional pressures, but also new challenges - climate change, over-development of bio-energy and the deepening economic crisis, Vice-Minister of Agriculture Chen Xiaohua said.