China said Tuesday that it has enough wheat reserves to weather a crippling drought and sought to allay concerns that a poor harvest will further push up global food prices, reported The Canadian Press.

China is the world's largest wheat-growing nation, but its wheat belt has gotten virtually no precipitation since late October.

Global wheat prices have spiked in recent days, with some analysts blaming China's drought and concerns that Beijing would be forced to import wheat to meet domestic demand.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu told reporters at a regular news conference that China has plentiful reserves following seven years of bumper harvests and that recent drought conditions in the wheat belt "will not affect international food prices."

Ma said the government was taking active measures to minimize the drought's impact.

The government said last week it will spend $1 billion to alleviate the drought, which as of Sunday had affected 18 million acres (7 million hectares) of crops in northern and eastern China and left nearly 3 million people short of drinking water.