UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday urged donors to pledge US$ one billion in immediate aid to help southern Sudan's reconstruction after a 21-year-long civil war.

"In the south, we will run out of food for two million people in a matter of weeks," the Norwegian News Agency quoted Annan as saying at a donors meeting in Norway's capital Oslo.

"If there was ever a time for donor countries to get off the fence, it is now," Annan said.

A peace agreement signed in January ended Africa's longest civil war in southern Sudan, paving the way for the country to receive badly needed funding for post-war construction.

The Oslo donors meeting on April 11-12 was attended by donor countries, international organizations, Sudanese officials and former rebel leaders.

During the meeting, the Norwegian government promised 1.6 billion Norwegian krone (US$252 million) in the next three years to help Sudan's economic development and reconstruction.

Norway played an active role in brokering January's peace agreement to end the civil war, which has killed two million people and displaced nine million.

(Xinhua News Agency April 12, 2005)