Pope Benedict XVI has lashed out at the “unbridled pursuit of wealth and short term profit” he says is behind global poverty and the present food crisis.

In a message for World Peace Day on January 1, the Pope said the focus on “short and very short term profit” was a “threat to all”.

He said the current economic crisis was evidence of “how financial activity is only focused on itself without any consideration of the long term, the common good”.

“The unbridled pursuit of wealth for wealth’s sake creates a risk that in the world the rich will live in an ivory tower surrounded by a desert of poverty and degradation,” he wrote in the 17-page message sent to heads of state, government and international organisations.

The Pope contended that the economy was no longer fulfilling its role “as a bridge between the present and the future, in the creation of new production opportunities and employment in the long term”.

He called for the establishment of a “common code of ethics” to narrow the gap between the rich and poor, while stating that globalisation was “an opportunity to achieve something important in the battle against poverty and offer peace and justice resources which until now have been unthinkable”.

Pope Benedict went on to blame the food crisis on the “phenomenon of speculation and the inability of economic and political institutions to deal with needs and emergencies”.

He raised objections to international campaigns aimed at reducing birth rates, “sometimes using methods that respect neither the dignity of the woman, nor the right of parents to choose responsibly how many children to have,” he said.

"Graver still, these methods often fail to respect even the right to life. The extermination of millions of unborn children, in the name of the fight against poverty, actually constitutes the destruction of the poorest of all human beings.”

Instead of contributing to poverty, the Pope said countries with higher birth rates could enjoy greater opportunities to develop.