Latin America has made more progress in reducing hunger than any other region in the world, the regional office of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Tuesday.

The region is also close to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the United Nations in the area of hunger, said FAO.

"The Latin America and the Caribbean region has halved the percentage of people suffering from hunger in the past 20 years, and is a step away from reaching the millennium goal," FAO's regional representative, Raul Benitez, said while presenting a report.

Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Venezuela, Barbados, Cuba, Dominica, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines have already eradicated hunger, said FAO. Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and the Dominican Republic have already reached the first MDG by cutting in half the number of people suffering from hunger, two years ahead of the 2015 deadline, it said.

However, hunger and malnutrition still affects 47 million people in the region. Haiti, Guatemala, Paraguay, Nicaragua and Bolivia are the worst-affected, according to FAO.

Meanwhile, overweight affects 23 percent of adults and 7 percent of pre-school children in the region. Some 3.8 million children aged below 5 are considered obese.