The United Nations food agency on Thursday received a boost for its efforts to eradicate hunger and malnutrition, sustainable production and poverty eradication in rural areas, with a donation of 7.9 million U.S. dollars announced by Italy.

The UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) said in a press release that the traditional focus of cooperation with Italy has been food security, with projects ranging from support to farmer- based cooperatives and the commercialization of agriculture to early warning to reduction of post-harvest losses.

The donation's announcement came at the end of a two-day Annual Review Meeting in Rome, the Italian capital, during which the Rome- based FAO and Italian officials reviewed their cooperative program, including the results achieved by more than 50 Italy-funded projects with a total budget of 127.2 million U.S. dollars.

Among the projects was a dairy project in Herat, western Afghanistan launched in 2007, with the aim to develop a commercial dairy production system to improve production, improving food security in the province, UN officials said here.

Other funding from Italy goes to emergency relief projects, said the officials.

"In emergency assistance, 40 percent of Italian aid has gone to sub-Saharan Africa over the past five years," according to the news release. "The Near East has received 25 percent and Asia about 20 percent of emergency funding."

The FAO will convene on June 15 the 38th session of its Conference in Rome, the officials added. Endi