GENEVA - The World Health Organisation (WHO) has expressed alarm over the situation in Iraq, particularly among children, since international sanctions were imposed on Baghdad more than five years ago.
At a press conference, Dr Anthony Piel, the head of the WHO director general's office repeated an offer made in 1994 that the UN organisation take over Iraq's frozen assets to buy and distribute medicine and food for children in the country.
A report based on Iraqi government statistics and a visit by a WHO official last year said, mortality among children under five had risen by 600 per cent between 1990 and 1994 because, of malnutrition.