Iraqi children suffer severe malnutrition, UN

The United Nations says children in some parts of Iraq are still suffering from severe malnutrition.

A joint report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation and World Food Programme said that high levels of malnutrition in central and southern Iraq reflected the effects of drought and poverty.

The report found that child mortality rates had more than doubled in the last ten years. Iraq's health ministry said that more than ten thousand Iraqis, mainly young children, died in July because of the international sanctions imposed on the country following its invasion of Kuwait in 1990. But significant improvements were noted in northern Iraq, where the UN has been implementing the oil-for-food programme on behalf of the Iraqi government , which supplies the food and medicine for the UN to distribute. The report said the improvements were due to the north's greater self-sufficiency in food, the higher levels of assistance and the revenue generated from spending by international organisations in the region.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service