ROME -- FAO staff carried out a short warning strike Tuesday to protest job cuts and management violating the UN agency's job security agreements, FAO sources said.

 Staff at the troubled Rome based Food and Agriculture Organisation had planned industrial action last week to coincide with the agency's World Food Week jamboree but FAO Director General José Graziano told staff representative bodies he would consider industrial action then a personal affront.

 In all at least 56 posts are being axed at the agency, many of them in IT positions, as the Brazilian director general seeks to make budget savings of dlrs 37 million, seen as a prerequisite for obtaining sufficient Western donor support for his re-election.

 Staff staged two walkouts in protest earlier this year, demanding that management respect the FAO "manual" procedures on employment protection that Dr Graziano unilaterally revoked.

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