Aug 27, Colombo: The United Nations and other aid organizations today appealed for more donor funding to meet the urgent humanitarian needs of newly displaced people in Sri Lanka's war-torn North.

The globally rising food prices combined with increasing number of people being displaced due to the protracted war in the North have created a dire situation for the aid organizations.

The UN's resident representative in Sri Lanka, Neil Buhne, has told the IRIN news agency that the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), an umbrella grouping of UN agencies and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs), is asking for US$190 million - up from about US$145 million sought at the beginning of 2008 - mainly for emergency relief, protection and early recovery projects.

"A mid-year review of the CHAP [Common Humanitarian Action Plan] for 2008 showed that we needed more funding than we had first thought," Buhne told IRIN. "This is partly because of increased food costs, which is the largest single cost component, and the new humanitarian needs in the country, particularly in the north."

UN humanitarian agency says over 190,000 displaced have been displaced as the fighting between government forces and the Tamil Tigers in the northern districts of Mannar, Vavuniya, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu has intensified recently.

Aid organizations worry about future needs as more people get displaced and global food costs rise.

So far donors have committed to meet the costs of about 40 percent of the original amount the humanitarian plan requested, Buhne said, and the worry was whether funding would be forthcoming for the new emergencies.

"Because there have been a number of other humanitarian crises this year, many potential donors to our Common Humanitarian Action Plan have limited additional funds for Sri Lanka. During the first part of the year the humanitarian needs in Sri Lanka may have seemed less pressing to some donors," Buhne said.