The World Food Program will likely be forced to cut off food aid to 3 million North Koreans in coming weeks, because it hasn't gotten enough foreign donations, the U.N. agency's director said Saturday.

The agency has received only 60 percent of the food needed this year for its goal of feeding 6.5 million North Koreans, WFP executive director James Morris said in Beijing.

"In January, we'll probably stop feeding about 3 million people," Morris said. He said WFP programs that have greatly eased malnutrition among North Korean children would likely be hurt.

"That progress is seriously at risk if we don't get the food we need," Morris said. "It's a very serious problem."

Efforts to attract donations have been complicated by tensions with foreign governments, the North's reluctance to let outsiders monitor food distribution, and competing appeals for aid in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The United States gave 40,000 tons of food this year, down from 155,000 tons in earlier years, Morris said. Japan, once the North's biggest donor, has given nothing for the past two years because of disputes with the North over its nuclear program and abductions of Japanese citizens years ago.

Morris said the WFP could resume normal aid distribution in late January because of promised donations from Russia. But he said that food would last only a few weeks, and the agency would have to cut off supplies to 3.8 million people in February if it doesn't get more help.

WFP is discussing with Washington a possible donation worth $4.2 million, Morris said. He didn't say how much food that included.

North Korea has depended on foreign food aid since revealing in the mid-1990s that its state-run farming industry had collapsed following decades of mismanagement and the loss of Soviet subsidies. Aid agencies say they don't know when the isolated North's 25 million people will be able to survive without donated food.

The North has expanded access for aid workers and lets them visit private markets that have opened in recent years, Morris said. But he said workers still must apply for permission to visit some areas and must be accompanied by government monitors.

"We're making some small progress," he said. "But some of our donors are wondering why North Korea is not adhering to the same standards of accessibility and accountability as other countries."

Morris was in Beijing to announce that the WFP would close its last food aid program in China in 2005, marking the end of more than 20 years of aid amid the country's economic boom.

The WFP has supplied food worth more than $1 billion to China since the 1970s, Morris said. He said he hopes China could now start backing the WFP.

"China simply doesn't need aid today as it did 25 years ago, and that's something to celebrate," he said. He added later: "As China becomes a more prosperous economy, we want China to become one of our major financial partners."

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