UN appeals for more aid to Zimbabwe children

GENEVA, June 26 (Reuters) The United Nations asked donors today to set aside their reservations about Zimbabwe's governance and provide funds to help increasingly desperate children in the southern African country.

UNICEF spokeswoman Veronique Taveau said the UN children's agency has received only 30 per cent of the 14 million dollars it needs for health, education, nutrition and other projects this year in Zimbabwe, where drought stands to worsen a deep economic crisis.

''We need money to be able to provide help,'' she told reporters in Geneva. ''Because of the human rights situation there, lots of donors are resistant to give money. But the situation on the ground, particularly for children, is dramatic.'' The IMF and other key Western donors, including the World Bank, suspended financial aid to Zimbabwe more than six years ago over President Robert Mugabe's policies including the seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution to new black farmers.

Poor harvests this year, attributed to drought as well as insufficient fertiliser and fuel, have worsened poverty in the country where UNICEF said inflation has reached 4,530 per cent, making basic goods unaffordable to many.

International aid groups have said more than one third of Zimbabwe's 13.1 million people will require food aid by the start of next year.

Mugabe, sole ruler of Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, blames his country's economic problems on sabotage by Western powers. Britain, the United States and other Western nations deny that they have waged economic war against Mugabe, saying they are trying to support democracy in the country.

REUTERS AK HS1943