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GENEVA, June 18 (AFP) - Three million Angolans, whose country is emerging from 27 years of civil war, are in need of immediate aid, a senior UN official said Tuesday.

The director of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Ross Mountain, has launched an appeal for international aid for the wartorn country, calling on donors to give up to 142 million dollars (150 million euros) in the next six months.

He also called for Angolan authorities to also step in and assist in financing and dispensing aid.

"There is a need for additional resources in order to consolidate the ongoing peace process and most importantly, to ensure that those who are suffering will survive and are able to reintegrate into their communities," Mountain told a news conference after returning from a trip to Angola.

"It is vital that UN assistance arrives pretty fast."

The Angolan government signed a peace accord on April 4 with the rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) movement, ending Africa's longest war.

He said the organisation had estimated that three million Angolans were now in need of immediate assistance.

Mountain told journalists he had visited a number of hospitals where he had seen countless children were suffering from severe malnutrition.

Another UN agency, UNICEF, said on Tuesday that Angola had one of the highest under-five child mortality rates in the world, estimating that one Angolan child dies every three minutes.

Given Angola was "a potentially very rich country", Mountain said the Angolan government was in a position to make resources available for both humanitarian and reconstruction efforts.

"We got a positive reaction that there would be resources forthcoming, which is encouraging," he said adding that government officials had spoken of a figure of about 20 million dollars.

The 27-year civil war forced more than four million people to leave their homes. In addition to the refugee crisis, demobilizing the former rebels and finding a new role for them in society remains a key hurdle to the peace process.

The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned last Tuesday that Angola's government and the UN were being too slow to respond to the needs of at least 600,000 people in need of immediate aid. - Nampa-AFP

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