The United Nations World Food Program on Wednesday issued an urgent appeal to international donors to come up with $118 million so it can expand food assistance to Zimbabwe by more than tenfold to feed some 3.3 million people through early 2008.

A WFP statement said the funds would go to purchase some 207,000 tonnes of food. It said existing stocks will decline in August and would be exhausted by December.

So far this year the WFP has raised US$70 million from countries including the United States, Canada, the European Union, Japan and Ireland, among others.

World Food Program Southern African spokesman Richard Lee told reporter Patience Rusere of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that donations from countries and multilateral organizations are needed “immediately” to stave off widespread hunger.

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