Geneva - The United Nations emergency air service, used to move food, medical assistance and aid workers to remote and dangerous locations, will have to shut its West Africa operation due to a lack of funds, the organisation announced on Tuesday.

The air service, run by the World Food Programme, is used to get aid and staff to areas that cannot be reached by land, whether owing to security concerns, lack of infrastructure or rough terrain.

In some areas a four day trip by land can be cut to just two hours by air, a WFP official said, reducing overall costs and keeping staff safe.

"Aid workers will not be able to reach vulnerable people with medical care, food, water and sanitation and other crucial services," the UN said in a statement.

In addition to West Africa, where Liberia would be affected and Niger has already been affected, other areas, such as Chad and the Central African Republic - both countries with internal troubles and poor infrastructure and dealing with overflows from the crisis in Darfur - were being affected by lack of funds for the air service.

Donors, said UN officials, sometimes neglected certain countries in favour of others which are in the headlines and have more political significance.

The air programme, dependant on donor contributions, was "running on fumes", Emilia Casella, a WFP spokeswoman told reporters in Geneva.

In 2008, when the air service lacked about 30 million dollars in funding, the programme carried more than 360,000 humanitarian passengers and 15,000 metric tons of cargo in 16 countries, using 58 chartered aircraft, the UN said. (dpa)