The agency asked countries to set aside any unease about helping Pyongyang during the crisis over its nuclear program and missile tests.

UNICEF has received less than US$500,000 of the US$12 million it needs this year to buy medicine, high-energy milk and other supplies for some 15 million vulnerable children and women in the DPRK, said Mehr Khan, the fund's Asia-Pacific regional director.

The plea came despite a substantial improvement in health and nutritional conditions compared to the late 1990s.

"Medicines, vaccines, food are desperately needed. Without these basic supplies, we could see malnutrition rates go up in coming months," Khan told a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday after returning from a week-long visit to the DPRK.

While it was not immediately clear why UNICEF's funding had dropped so sharply, officials said they believe that the nuclear issue on the peninsula has had a possible effect on donations since it erupted last October.

"It might be the political uncertainty and people are holding back donations," Khan said. "But, with humanitarian assistance, we cannot wait. The children cannot wait."

The World Food Programme, another UN agency that helps feed millions of DPRK people, also said donations are down sharply, meaning the agency could run out of food by June.

Richard Bridle, the UNICEF representative in the DPRK, said there had been some significant improvements in humanitarian conditions across the country, including the eradication of polio.

The proportion of underweight children under the age of seven was 21 percent, down from 61 percent in 1998. Wasting or acute malnutrition has fallen to 9 percent from 16 percent, while stunting or chronic malnutrition rates dropped to 42 percent from 62 percent five years ago.

Despite that, "the rations are not adequate," said Bridle. "We say there is an improvement, but that is an improvement from a disastrous situation to a bad one."

(China Daily March 13, 2003)