In a statement distributed Friday the agency said that in 2005 food production fell by between 50 and 70 percent as a result of low rainfall, and that this year's annual long rains had been "below normal".

More than 85 percent of districts in Tanzania are affected by drought, the agency said, and 565,000 people were facing severe hunger.

"With more than half a million people in dire need, we really need funding now for this new emergency operation," Patrick Buckley, the World Food Programme (WFP) representative for Tanzania said in a statement first published Thursday.

"If we are to help these families -- whom we should start feeding as soon as possible -- we need the international community to make rapid contributions," he said, adding the agency required 33,900 tonnes (37,290 short tons) of maize for the vulnerable population from May until September, when needs would be reviewed.

The drought has also affected pastoralist communities in the country's northern regions, forcing herders to sell their emaciated stocks at throwaway prices.

Tanzania, alongside Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Burundi have been badly hit by a drought ravaging the eastern African region and of the total 15 million people in need, about eight million require emergency assistance.

Kenya Conference
In other news, world lawmakers on Friday wrapped up a week-long conference in Kenya pleading with the rich nations to speedd elivery of humanitarian assistance for drought-afflicted regions in Africa, where food shortage is threatening millions.

In addition, the 114th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) said it was unacceptable that some people in world were living well while others, notably in Africa, were suffering as result of problems caused by food shortages.

"The IPU makes a pressing and urgent appeal for increased supplies of emergency food assistance to be made available to drought-affected nations in Africa and calls on governments to collectively to meet the targets contained in the repeated appeals from international agencies," lawmakers from 118 countries said in a joint communique.

"It is not possible that people continue dying when others live well in other countries," IPU secretary general Anders Johnsson told reporters at the final press conference here.

"The donors have to respect their commitments and affected countries have to implement policies on sustainable food production, developed infrastructure, measures of good governance and effective fight against corruption," Johnsson said.

In addition to drought-ravaged east African regions, many countries in south and north Africa have suffered from severe food shortages for several decades.

The problems have been exacerbated by recurrent conflict, grinding poverty, bad governance and international trading policies perceived by critics to be unfair.

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