Italian grows tomato- eggplant tree
Invention could help solve world hunger, botanist says

An amateur botanist in Sicily on Friday claimed he has created the world's first 'eggplant and tomato tree' as a solution to world famine.

Surveyor Giuseppe Marino came up with the tree by grafting tissue from eggplant and tomato plants onto a devil's fig shrub - a spiny plant from central America that can grow up to five metres in height.

Marino said the shrub is resistant to disease and thrives in difficult conditions with little water, adding that his invention could be ''an answer for the G8 to the problem of world hunger''.

''The eggplant and tomato tree can by cultivated anywhere,'' said Marino. ''It only needs pruning in winter and it bears both eggplants and tomatoes from April until September or October.

''The fruits are very big, with perfect taste, colour and smell, and of a better quality than those grown in the normal way,'' he said.