The World Food Programme has been forced to cut the amount of food rations it gives more than two million needy people in Angola because of delays in the shipment of aid, a spokesperson of the UN food agency said yesterday.

"Some aid has arrived late, some has yet to arrive," Marcelo Espina told private Portuguese radio TSF in a telephone interview from the west African nation.

"This situation has caused aid stocks to fall sharply and led to the need to reduce the food aid which is given to most of the people who receive help," he added.

Espina said 2,2-million people in the former Portuguese colony receive food aid from the UN agency and rations had been reduced to all but 100 000, mostly children and elderly, who were deemed to be the most vulnerable to hunger.

A report published last month by the United Nations and the Angolan government said at least 2,7-million people needed food aid in Angola despite the stability that has ensued since the end of a civil war in April 2002. – Sapa-AFP.