KIRYANDONGO, Uganda -- UN refugee agency (UNHCR) Chief Ruud Lubbers appealed on Saturday for more funding for humanitarian activities in Africa, saying crises such as that in Iraq tended to dominate donor limelight.

"Crises like the one in Iraq impact negatively on the funding for Africa," where there are three million refugees, he said.

"The world should now focus on Africa not Iraq," Lubbers said.

"We (the UNHCR) shall focus more on development assistance to refugee solutions like repatriation, naturalization and self reliance activities. But this will need more funding from the G8 group of countries," Lubbers told journalists after touring a refugee camp in Kiryandongo, about 200km north of Kampala.

He said the UNHCR's 300-million dollar (280-million euro) budget for activities in Africa was inadequate and that the agency would seek additional funding of up to 100 million dollars.

He also noted that the budget for humanitarian activities for Africa had declined.

"Our current budget of 300 million dollars is required to be increased by between 50 to 100 million dollars to undertake these new challenges," he added. Lubbers is due to travel to Kenya on Sunday for a two day official visit. (AFP)