DUSHANBE The United Nations appealed on Tuesday for urgent food aid for one million people facing "the spectre of famine" in Tajikistan after a two-year drought.

The UN World Food Program (WFP) said while international attention was focused on the humanitarian needs of Tajikistan's neighbor Afghanistan, the former Soviet Republic was facing a severe hunger crisis.

"The crippling drought that hit Tajikistan is part of a regional phenomenon that has also afflicted neighboring Afghanistan, but donor support for WFP operations in Tajikistan has been much less," the WFP said in a statement.

The agency appealed for 67,000 tons of food aid, costing $36 million, to cover the needs of one million Tajiks in remote mountain areas through the winter, the Reuters reported.

"The spectre of famine looms for many of these people, who have already depleted their meagre savings and have virtually no employment opportunities," Ardag Meghdessian, the WFP's Tajikistan country director, said in the statement.

The international aid community has stepped up a major relief operation in Afghanistan and along its borders to feed Afghans hit by drought and those on the move in the wake of U.S.-led air strikes.

"We are hoping that the generosity of the donor community toward the drought victims in Afghanistan will extend further north and help the hungry poor in Tajikistan, who are suffering from the same drought," Meghdessian said.