By Abdoulaye Massalatchi

NIAMEY, May 12 (Reuters) - Spain plans to help five poor African countries fight hunger and climate change under a 60 million euro ($90 million) scheme to help the continent whose people flood to Spain in their tens of thousands each year.

Spanish First Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega announced the aid package ahead of a Spanish-African women's conference opening on Monday in Niger, one of many African nations struggling to cope with high world food prices.

"With this plan, Spain hopes to relaunch agriculture, fight desertification and promote appropriate management of water resources, along with marketing fish, farming products and renewable energy," de la Vega told delegates late on Sunday.

The programme would cover Burkina Faso, Benin, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone and Niger.

"We are committed to helping these countries in their efforts to counter the effects of climate change on food security. The rise in food prices is a worry and requires an international response," she said.

Erratic weather, rising demand for food from increasingly affluent Asian countries, the use of land and food crops for biofuels, and investors speculating on world futures markets have driven up food prices around the world in the past year.

The Spanish aid plan consists of 25 million euros to fight the causes and effects of food insecurity, 25 million more for water and environmental projects, and 10 million for related programmes run by non-governmental organisations.

De la Vega said Spain was also giving Niger 10 million euros for 2008 to fight poverty under a cooperation agreement, along with 300,000 euros to reinforce border security.

She said the Niger aid package would include 1.3 million euros to top up Niger's strategic food reserve.

Niger, like other countries in West Africa and beyond, has eased tax on food imports this year to cushion the effects of high prices on its poorest families.

The country is one of the world's poorest, with one in five children dying before their fifth birthday. Even if the next harvest is successful, aid agencies fear high food prices could put decent nutrition beyond the reach of millions of people.

In 2005 widespread hunger in Niger sparked an international emergency programme to distribute food aid.

Tens of thousands of young people set out from West Africa each year in the hope of finding work and better lives in Europe, many putting ashore on Spain's Canary Islands after treacherous voyages.

Spain has signed a series of aid agreements with West African countries, hoping to fight poverty and improve cooperation in controlling the flow of departing migrants. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com) (Writing by Alistair Thomson; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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