th Organization, said despite the international attention Darfur had attracted, the United Nations was not receiving the money it needed to curb deaths caused by malnutrition and disease.

"Every day in newspapers in the U.S., Europe and Japan, there is coverage of the suffering in Darfur, yet we don't have a significant enough popular perception around the world of the enormity of that suffering, and the United Nations cannot get the funding for this priority program," Mr. Nabarro said in a telephone interview.

The United Nations has received only half of the $300 million it needs, he said, while with full financing it could reduce the current mortality rate by half.

At United Nations headquarters, the United States was discussing moving Security Council meetings on Sudan to Nairobi next month, when it will hold the rotating presidency of the Council. American diplomats said the purpose would be to speed the conclusion of talks in Kenya aimed at ending a decades-long civil war in the south of Sudan.

The American ambassador, John C. Danforth, was President Bush's special envoy to those talks, and the United Nations believes that getting a peace agreement put into effect in the south would help resolve the conflict in Darfur, in western Sudan.

Several Security Council ambassadors said Mr. Danforth had discussed the suggestion with them and was receiving support for it. Asked about the proposal, Richard A. Grenell, Mr. Danforth's spokesman, would say only that "during the month of November, while we hold the presidency, we are exploring ways to highlight the Sudan issue."

The conflict in Darfur has forced 1.4 million villagers from their homes into displacement camps, and 200,000 of them have fled across the border to Chad. The United States has said that the government-supported killings and mass evictions constitute genocide, and Secretary General Kofi Annan has created an international commission to compile a report in three months on whether genocide has occurred.

Mr. Nabarro said that because of a lack of money, relief workers in Darfur were unable to distribute aid in helicopters and had to rely on trucks, which broke down. He said the agency needed 10 charter aircraft but could only afford four. The agency has been borrowing money to meet its needs of $1.5 million a month, he said, but could not continue doing so past mid-December.

"We are running on a threadbare, hand-to-mouth existence, and if the plight of these people in Darfur is as important to the international community as it seems to be, then we would have expected more long-term support," he said.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------