DAKAR (AFP) -- At least 1.4 million children aged under five in the Sahel region of northern Africa suffer from acute malnutrition, the UN agency World Food Program (WFP) said.

"The region has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world," WFP Senior Deputy Executive Director Jean-Jacques Graisse told a news conference.

"At least 1.4 million children under five in the Sahel suffer from acute malnutrition - 37 percent of all under fives are chronically malnourished," according to a WFP statement.

The Sahel region covers a band of north African countries south of the Sahara, stretching east to west across the continent.

Among the affected countries are Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Chad which suffer some of the highest infant and child mortality rates in the world, said Mustapha Darboe, WFP West African regional director.

Niger's child mortality rate is 25.9 percent, according to the most recent UN Children's Fund figures.

WFP country directors of the west Africa region meanwhile are meeting at a forum in Dakar that concludes Monday as the agency is battling to meet its financial needs.

Despite recent donations from Saudi Arabia (5.5 million dollars or 4.4 million euros) and the United States (five million dollars), a total of 47 million dollars is currently lacking to ensure that WFP nutrition operations in the Sahel countries are rolled out through 2007.

Funding goes to feeding centers in each country, where malnourished children are given micro-nutrient fortified food rations.

In Niger, for example, the food centers helped bring down malnutrition levels to 11.8 percent from a high of 17.3 percent in 2000, according to a WFP statement.

Despite the improvement, the level is still considered "serious" by the World Health Organization.