(BRUSSELS) - The European Commission will propose next Tuesday to tap unspent money in the European Union's agriculture budget to help farmers in poor countries, the EU agriculture commissioner said on Thursday.

"Agriculture, when we talk of development aid, has been underprioritized for now more than 20 years, we need to catch up with it," Mariann Fischer Boel told a conference in Brussels.

"We will come forward ... with a package to make it possible for the net food importing developing countries to get money for seeds and fertilizers, to improve their own production facilities," she added.

The Danish commissioner explained later in a press conference that the iniative would be funded by using surpluses in the EU's common agriculture policy.

The CAP's finances are brimming with surpluses currently because high prices for food products has made it unnecessary for the EU to ensure minimum prices through subsidies.

Fischer Boel said that the funds would come from CAP expected surpluses in 2008 and 2009, but she refused to say how much money would be involved.

One EU official told AFP that the money could range from 750 million to one billion euros.

However, the proposal could face resistance from member states who would normally get such surplus. The idea met with little enthusiasm from member states when Fischer Boel first floated it in May.

"It's a new and important idea which should be studied and debated," said French Farm Minister Michel Barnier, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency.

"When we have to deal with an exceptional situation, beyond words, exceptional responses are needed," he said.

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