"Scenes at some of the supplementary feeding centres, established and run by the government in southern Ethiopia, show the worst side of a hunger that remains depressingly familiar," said WFP's Ethiopia director Mohamed Diab.

In a statement released in Nairobi, Diab said the situation was not as bad as 2003, when more than 13 million people needed food aid, but that the agency and its partners were monitoring 40 "hunger spots".

Erratic rains caused small harvests this year in the Horn of Africa country of 70 million people, almost 1 million of whom WFP said would still need food aid after December's main harvest.

Before that, up to 3.3 million Ethiopians are expected to need donations to survive, it said, pushing the country's emergency food needs this year to more than 600,000 tonnes.

"Ethiopia has had five major droughts in just two decades, causing untold deaths, suffering and hardship," Diab said.