Cuba is the only country in Latin America that has come close to eliminating severe child malnutrition, local media quoted a representative of the UN World Food Program (WFP) as saying on Tuesday.

Two percent of Cuban children suffer severe malnutrition, a level that the WFP's Myrta Kaulard described as excellent and far from the dramatic malnutrition levels seen elsewhere in the region.

Kaulard said Cuba had nearly eradicated the problem thanks to the measures adopted by the Cuban government and the appropriate use of WFP resources.

The official listed Bolivia, Guatemala and Haiti as the nationswith the highest malnutrition levels in the Latin America and Caribbean region.

The WFP aims to eradicate malnutrition in the region by 2015.

It is now working to ensure better food security among Cuba's vulnerable groups, in light of the PMA-CUBA 10032 project which provides food for small children and pregnant mothers in five eastern Cuban provinces.

The program, launched in 2002, supports 630,000 people and costs US$5 million. It complements the efforts of the Cuban government in the territories isolated by droughts in recent years.

The WFP has provided Cuba aid worth US$234 million in four emergency operations. 
 
(Xinhua News Agency Febuary 1, 2006)