UK's Darfur aid efforts praised

Darfur is described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis

Charity bosses have praised the UK Government's aid provisions for Sudan's humanitarian crisis as "brilliant".

The UK is the third largest donor to the UN's effort in the Darfur region and overall the government has pledged £62.5m.

Oxfam and Christian Aid have now urged France, Italy and Japan to do the same.

"They should put their money where their mouth is," said Judith Melby, of Christian Aid.

The UN estimates it will need US$350 (£190m) for its own relief effort - entirely separate from the millions spent by each aid agency, NGO and charity.

The appeal is almost half way to reaching its target, having raised US$165m (£90m).

We feel we have been doing as much as we can UK Government

The US Government has donated over £38m since the appeal began in April this year.

The Netherlands comes next with just under £11m of donations.

At the other end of the scale Japan has given less than £500,000 - only just beating Lichtenstein's contribution.

While France and Spain's combined total is £2.5m.

'Bureaucratic barriers'

Ms Melby praised the UK Government for "taking the lead" with humanitarian aid.

She told BBC News Online: "The UK did take the lead in terms of aid.

"But they also took the lead by brokering the deal which got round the bureaucratic barriers and allowed aid agencies access to the people in Darfur."

She urged the UK Government to use the same brokering skills to get parties in the Sudan dispute around the negotiating table.

Top UN donor countries US - £38.4m Netherlands £10.8m UK - £6.2m Canada - 4.1m Australia - £3.3m Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

But she added: "Obviously the most important thing is to get the aid into the areas where it is need - the UK has done brilliantly with that."

Brendan Cox of Oxfam also said that the UK is doing well with the delivery of humanitarian aid.

"Compared to other governments they are certainly being more generous. In terms of humanitarian aid, they are doing very well," he said.

But he added that they could be doing more on the political front and insisted that Oxfam would "keep up the pressure" on all governments to end the strife in Darfur.

The charity's Adrian McIntyre, who is in southern Darfur, told BBC News 24: "We are quite concerned that the effects of the current crisis are going to last well into next year.

"In fact the planting season that should have occurred now has been completely disrupted by the conflict. People have not been on their farms to plant crops.

"This is the time of year when people traditionally in this part of Sudan are going hungry as there is a gap in food supplies between last year and the harvest that will see them into next year."

Direct contact

The Department for International Development (Dfid) has committed a total of £62.5m in humanitarian aid to Darfur.

This figure includes donations to the UN and all other aid agencies working in the area.

A spokesman for Dfid said it would be hard to criticise the government for not doing enough.

He said: "We feel we have been doing as much as we can.

"(International development minister) Hilary Benn has visited the region and has spoken directly to Kofi Annan and Colin Powell.

"We are also in direct contact with the Sudan Government."