The U.N.'s World Food Programme (WFP) warned Wednesday that it was running out of cash to buy food supplies for Iraqi children and pregnant women, Reuters reported. The WFP said it had received only 29 million dollars of the 66 million dollars it appealed for in 2005. The Indian government recently gave 2.5 million dollars worth of wheat flour, but the shortage of supplies remains. "If we don't get more funding soon, we will no longer be able to assist them," said Calum Gardner, WFP director in Iraq. Gardner said the WFP has, so far, been able to assist 1.5 million of the total 1.7 million Iraqis considered most vulnerable. The programme's September 2004 appeal for 66 million dollars was aimed at providing 67,000 metric tons of food to children, family members, and hundreds of thousands of pregnant and lactating women in Iraq's poorest areas. The total number of people in need of food aid was estimated at 1.7 million. --SP 2255 Local Time 1955 GMT
