LONDON -- Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi called Monday for urgent international action to avoid a major catastrophe in the East African country where 15 million people face a famine disaster.

"The facts speak for themselves," Zenawi told BBC Radio.

"The disaster we had 1984-1985, the number involved was roughly a third to one half of the number of people involved now," he said. "So if that was a nightmare, this will be too ghastly to contemplate."

The World Food Program (WFP) warned at the beginning of the month that it could run out of food aid for drought-stricken Ethiopia as early as December unless governments respond quickly to the call for emergency aid.

"The current drought is unique because the short rains and the long rains have failed," said the stricken country's prime minister.

Ethiopia has two rainy seasons, a short season beginning in February and running through April and a long one beginning in June and ending in September.

But this year, no rain fell during the short rainy season, while the long season began late and saw too little precipitation.

UN agencies in Ethiopia have estimated that more than six million Ethiopians -- or one person in six -- are threatened by the drought, which has hit several parts of the Horn of Africa country, stretching from the northeast down to the southeast.

According to Zenawi, there could be as many as 15 million Ethiopians at risk and there was "no possibility" that Ethiopia could cope without international aid.

"Even if we had the food available in the domestic market the government doesn't have the money to buy this surplus food for redistribution.

"So we can't cope on our own with the requirements of the current drought," he said.

Ethiopia needed food aid in "huge amounts" to avoid catastrophe, he warned.

"That is going to be in the realm of hundreds of thousands of dollars (euros), if not millions," he said.

"We are hopeful that we will get much of what is required.

"We don't expect to get all that is required but we hope we will get much of it.

"I very much hope we will get the assistance we need so that we do not live through repeated nightmares, Zenawi said.

The work of the WFP and other aid organizations is hampered by Ethiopia's strained relations with its coastal neighbor Eritrea in the wake of the 1998-2000 war between the two countries.

During the last major emergency relief operation before the war, more than 80 percent of incoming aid passed through Eritrean ports -- now off limits for shipments bound for Ethiopia.