Kathmandu  - The UN World Food Programme said Friday that it would cut food aid to thousands of Bhutanese refugees in Nepal because of a funding shortage.

The agency said nearly 90,000 refugees living in seven UN-run camps in eastern Nepal would have to make do with a worse diet unless more aid came in.

The organization said the acute food and funding shortage would result in a daily loss of 700 kilocalories and 14 grams of protein per refugee per day.

"We are concerned about the consequences of reduced rations on the refugees," the agency's country representative, Richard Ragan, said.

With no legal right to work or own land, the refugees are almost entirely dependent on food aid to meet their basic needs.

"Without their full ration, the most vulnerable refugees will be forced to eat fewer meals or decrease portion sizes, leading to reduced nutritional status," Ragan said.

The UN agency is appealing for 4 million dollars to continue feeding the refugees until January.

More than 100,000 Bhutanese of Nepali origin fled from southern Bhutan nearly two decades ago, alleging discrimination.

The exodus followed the introduction of "Bhutanization," which disenfranchised ethnic minorities, banned the teaching of Nepali in schools, and enforced the dress code and customs of the majority Druk ethnicity, the UN agency said.

Since last year, Nepal has allowed the refugees to choose third-country resettlement. Under the programme, more than 20,000 Bhutanese refugees have left the country to be settled in Western countries, a majority of them in the United States.

The World Food Programme said more than 80,000 refugees have expressed a desire to go abroad under the programme but the process could take up to five years to complete.

At the height of the refugee crisis, more than 107,000 refugees were housed in the UN-supervised camps in western Nepal.

Multiple rounds of talks between Nepal and Bhutan to resolve the crisis have failed. (dpa)