GENEVA: The UN food agency says 90,000 people who have fled ethnic violence in Myanmar are in need of aid.    

The World Food Program says it has distributed emergency food supplies to 66,000 people in the past week and is now moving additional stocks to the western Rakhine state.

WFP spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that the agency is planning a three-month operation in the area.

The UN refugee agency says it is scaling up its work to help those fleeing the violence that flared up last month.

UNHCR Spokesman Adrian Edwards says boatloads of Rohingya Muslims continue to strike out for neighbouring Bangladesh.

But Edwards says Bangladesh is refusing to allow the refugees into the country and turned back 139 people on Sunday.