Food crisis and the political situation in Zimbabwe have topped the agenda of the ongoing 11th African Union Summit.

The summit opened in Egyptian Red Sea resort Sharm EL-Sheikh on Monday.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called on the international community to shoulder responsibility to overcome global food crisis through dialogue and collective actions.

However, Food and Agriculture Organisation Director-General, Jacques Diouf, said Africa should mainly rely on itself to deal with food crisis.

"We should invest more in agriculture and we should get African countries themselves to produce their own food, instead of importing 60 percent of their need from outside."

For his part, AU Commission Chairperson Jean Ping pledged efforts to step up agricultural production in member nations and fully implement Africa's Comprehensive Agricultural Development Program adopted in July 2003.

Meanwhile, Jean Ping called on African countries to assume their responsibilities to help Zimbabwe end the current political crisis.

Zimbabwe held a presidential run-off election on Friday as scheduled despite opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's withdrawal from the race.