MANILA, Nov 23 (Reuters) - The Philippines, the world's largest rice buyer, has called a fourth import tender for 2010, to bring in a total 2.05 million tonnes of the grain until May to lift stocks after tyhoons hit production.

    The country is trying to secure its supplies before prices rise sharply, and an official of the state's grain importing arm said 2010 imports of the national staple could reach as much as 3  million tonnes.

    The National Food Authority is seeking to buy 600,000 tonnes  of rice at each of three tenders on Dec. 1, 8 and 15.

The agency already awarded contracts for 250,000 tonnes of rice to Vietnam's Vinafood 2 and Korean trading firm Daewoo International Corp when it began its 2010 rice-buying on Nov. 4.

    Manila's running total for 2010 already exceeds the 1.775 million tonnes of rice it imported for 2009 and is near the record 2.3 million tonnes the country bought for 2008 which helped lift grain prices to all-time highs.