Mexico City, March 5 (RHC-teleSUR), -- Latin American governments have pledged to work toward ending hunger within a decade while tackling an epidemic of rising obesity in the region — itself considered a form of malnutrition, according to Reuters on Friday.

“Countries have been very clear: the regional priority is to eradicate hunger by 2025,” said Jose Graziano da Silva, head of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), at a regional meeting in Mexico City which ended on Thursday.

At the three-day meeting, government representatives from across Latin America and the Caribbean drew up plans to accelerate alleviating hunger, a condition that has halved in the region in the last 25 years.

At the same time, said the FAO, far more attention needs to be paid to combating obesity, particularly among women, in a region where nearly a quarter of all adults are obese.