Pyongyang, September 15 (KCNA) -- East African leaders wound up a one-day summit to discuss the drought and famine crisis in the Horn of Africa region, warning failure to tackle it could plunge the region into a general food conflict.

The leaders from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the East African Community (EAC) called for the creation of what they termed "natural buffer zone against disasters" and agreed on a target to boost forest cover by 2017.

The targeted action, the leaders vowed, would be to increase the forestry cover to 10 percent of the region's entire area and robustly improve irrigation cover to an equal measure while applying strategies to curb over-grazing.