"We still have time to avert a major crisis and avoid hunger-related deaths. If in three or four months nothing happens, we will have an all-out disaster on our hands," said Judith Lewis, the WFP's regional director for eastern and southern Africa.

The WFP has sent teams to Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe - in order of the severity of the problem - as well as to Lesotho, Mozambique and Swaziland, to assess how many people need food and how much food, Lewis told Reuters in an interview.

Results of the assessment would be released around mid-May.

The WFP is already running emergency feeding programmes for 2.6 million people in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

"There is every indication that that number will escalate drastically," Lewis said.

Families in some of the five countries Lewis has visited in recent weeks have been reduced to eating roots, berries and boiled leaves.

"It is really very, very bad," Lewis said.

She spoke of reports of men diving for roots in crocodile-infested rivers and women working 12 hours a day for two weeks, carrying water to sell for a handful of maize meal.

FAILING CROPS

Some 500 people in Malawi have died from starvation and related illnesses in the four months to March, the country's Vice President Justin Malewezi said last month.

The WFP has said it estimates 1.1 million Zambians need emergency food this year, but the number could rise because some areas affected by drought have still to be assessed.

Zimbabwe, racked by political turmoil since early 2000, may have to import between 1.5 million and 2.0 million tonnes of maize and aid agencies estimate that more than a million people face food shortages.

The Mozambican government and aid agencies estimate there are tens of thousands of hungry people in the east African nation, but there are no clear figures.

Heavy rain and hail have damaged crops in Lesotho, which normally imports about half its food needs from South Africa.

Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili has announced a state of famine and 34,000 people need food urgently. He said Lesotho faced a cereal deficit of 220,000 tonnes.

Swaziland's Noah Nkhambule, the principal secretary for the agriculture ministry, has said there will be a more-than 80,000 tonne maize shortfall this year to meet domestic needs of about 157,000 tonnes.

EL NINO NIGHTMARE

Lewis said the response to appeals for money and food for the existing feeding programmes had been sluggish, with the slowest response being for Zimbabwe.

"A lot of people are in wait-and-see mode for Zimbabwe, but I think we will have a decent response. The U.S. is coming through with a substantial donation for Malawi and we have resources in Zambia," Lewis said.

Once the assessments are completed in mid-May, a regional meeting of stakeholders will be held under the auspices of the United Nations at the end of May in South Africa to plot a strategy to feed the region, she said.

South Africa's estimate for its 2001/02 commercial maize harvest has fallen by four percent since the first forecast in February to 8.5 million tonnes this month because of dry weather.

South Africa, which the WFP was hoping would be a major supplier of maize into the region, is expected to have very tight supplies during the coming year.

South Africa is expected to consume around 7.8 million tonnes domestically in the 2002/03 (May to April) marketing year and some market watchers say the maize forcast may come down another 200,000 tonnes.

The WFP and governments in southern Africa imported 12.9 million tonnes of food in 1992 when the region was ravaged by an El Nino-induced drought.

Lewis said there were real fears that the region could be hit by another El Nino drought in the coming year, putting at risk new crops that will be planted from about September, although latest signs suggested grave dryness might not occur.

"The last report I heard is that there won't be a major drought for southern Africa."