Saturday, March 27, 1999 Published at 14:55 GMT

Iraq foot-and-mouth epidemic worsens

Iraq has launched an international appeal for help to combat an outbreak of a livestock disease which it says has already wiped out more than a million-head of sheep and cattle.

The head of the Iraqi health ministry's veterinary department, Fadel Abbas, said on Iraqi television that the destruction of laboratory facilities during and after the Gulf War had reduced the country's ability to produce vaccines to combat the epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has already warned that the epidemic could spread to countries neighbouring Iraq.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service