By Saliou Samb

CONAKRY, July 15 (Reuters) - Several hundred refugees from Ivory Coast living in Guinea's capital have asked to transfer to a U.N.-run refugee camp to be sure of getting a daily meal, U.N. official said on Tuesday.

"Many people asked to be transferred to the camp to escape their precarious situation in Conakry, where they found serious difficulties in feeding themselves and finding accomodation," UNHCR's spokesman in Conakry, Faya Millimono, told Reuters.

World prices of basic foodstuffs such as rice and wheat have doubled over the last year. This has badly hit many African nations which rely on imports and has sparked food riots on the world's poorest continent, as well as elsewhere.

More than 4,400 Ivorian refugees live in Guinea, 1,300 of them in Conakry, according to the United Nations refugee agency. Most fled to their West African neighbour to escape violence before and during Ivory Coast's 2002-03 civil war that divided the world's No. 1 cocoa producer.

Of those living by their own means in Conakry, 800 had requested to be allowed to enter a refugee camp, although only 192 so far had finally signed up to make the transfer.

That group began the trip on Tuesday under UNHCR supervision to a camp at Kouankan, 800 km (500 miles) from Conakry in Guinea's southeast forest region near the border with Liberia.

Guinea, the world's leading exporter of the aluminium ore bauxite, sheltered more than 600,000 refugees from neighbouring Sierra Leone and Liberia at the height of 1990s civil wars.

Despite Guinea's sub-soil mineral wealth, more than half of its population live on under a dollar a day.

Rocketing inflation and food shortages helped trigger union-led mass street riots against President Lansana Conte early last year. More than 130 people were killed, most of them shot by Conte's security forces.

More sharp hikes in food and fuel prices this year have once again stoked social and political tensions, leading to bloody army and police mutinies in May and June. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/) (Writing by Daniel Magnowski, Editing by Pascal Fletcher)

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