"The assistance will boost the government's action plan to feed most vulnerable people between December this year and end of March next year," WFP country director Nicole Menage said in a statement.

"We only have a small window of opportunity in which to get food aid positioned in time for the difficult months to support those worst affected by the drought," she said, adding that the WFP needed the funds to provide 45,000 tonnes of food.

The Tanzanian authorities blame the serious food shortage on insufficient rainfall during the 2002-2003 farming season. They hav appealed to businessmen to import more of the staple food maize, promising to exempt them from import tax as an incentive.

TERRA.WIRE