CHICAGO -- Fewer than one-third of black mothers opt to breast-feed their babies compared with two-thirds of white mothers, a disparity that accounts for higher infant mortality rates among blacks, Reuters quoted researchers as saying on Monday.

That gap, in which black Americans have an infant mortality rate 1.3 times that of whites, should narrow if black women can be persuaded to breast-feed, wrote study author Renata Forste of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

Breast-feeding is widely accepted as a healthier alternative to bottle-feeding because of the nutrients in breast milk and the boost it provides a baby's immune system.

When asked why they did not breast-feed, 83 percent of the black mothers in the 1995 survey of about 1,000 women chose the response, "preferred to bottle-feed." Other options were scheduling problems, or physical or medical barriers.

Forste wrote that more study was needed to determine the psychological and social reasons behind preferences for bottle-feeding, but that physicians and other health-care providers should target the black community with the message that "Breast Is Best."