Rio De Janeiro, Oct 11 (IANS): Hunger and poverty are the main reasons why children are forced to work and though there is no shortage of resources, "lack of shame and political will to confront this problem" defies a solution, Brazil's former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said.

Lula and President Dilma Rousseff took part in the closing ceremony Thursday of the third global conference on child labour organized by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Brazil's capital city Brasilia, reports Xinhua.

Recalling his own life, Lula said in a speech that hunger and poverty are the main reasons why children are forced to work. "There is no shortage of resources but lack of shame and political will to confront this problem," he said.

"Child labour is usually rampant in the poorest regions of the world. Besides hunger, there are certainly other reasons for child labour, such as economic condition, traditions and political situation," Lula added.

He said the first step towards speeding up the fight against child labour is to promote wealth distribution in the poorest regions of the world.

About 1,300 delegates from 153 countries participated and discussed education, social policy and inequality in the conference.

According to ILO, 168 million children continue to be part of the world's labour force today despite significant progress having been made in addressing the issue.