WASHINGTON, April 9 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday called for a fully coordinated response by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and United Nations to deal with rising food prices.

In an April 8 letter, Brown asked Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, as chair of the Group of Eight industrial nations, to ask the international agencies to develop a global strategy to deal with the crisis.

"The international community needs a fully coordinated response," Brown wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, before the World Bank and IMF meetings in Washington this weekend.

"We need both short-term action to deal with immediate hardship, and a medium-term response, which will provide a framework for tackling the opportunities and challenges," he said. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; editing by Leslie Adler)

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