ROME, July 7 (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Tuesday he hoped the G8 summit in Italy this week would approve between $10-15 billion for a new initiative on food security.

"We hope to approve an initiative for food security in the world. We will approve about $10-15 billion for all the people in the world who are suffering from hunger," the Italian premier told a news conference.

He said the initiative would be called the "L'Aquila Food Security Initiative", after the central Italian city where the G8 summit takes place from Wednesday to Friday.

According to a draft declaration prepared for the summit seen by Reuters, the United States is ready to mobilise $3-4 billion for such an initiative and wants other partners to match that commitment to reach a global amount of $15 billion.

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