UN says famine averted in central Afghanistan

The United Nations says it believes it has succeeded in averting a threatened famine in central Afghanistan.

The UN World Food Programme has supplied thousands of tons of potatoes and wheat to the remote and mountainous region of Hazarajat, where it said up to one hundred and sixty thousand people were at risk.

A UN spokesman said the bulk of the supplies had been delivered, but heavy snowfalls meant that the relief effort was likely to fall short of its original target.

The crisis was brought on by a poor harvest in the region and a blockade imposed by the Taleban because it is controlled by opposition forces.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service