KABUL, Feb 23: More than 370 people, many of them young children, have died from avalanches and health problems from the country's worst winter in a decade, officials said on Wednesday.

Afghan public health minister Sayeed Amin Fatimie said at least 211 children under five had died in the last month and a half because of the freezing conditions. The deaths were due to "cold-related diseases such as respiratory tract infections or whooping cough, he said.

The western province of Ghor was worst hit by the freezing conditions with 90 confirmed deaths, and north -eastern Badakhshan and central Daikundi provinces were also badly affected, Fatimie added.

Aid agency Catholic Relief Services said last week that between several hundred and 1,000 children are feared dead in poverty-stricken Ghor as a result of the cold spell.

Afghan officials said late last week that at least 162 other people have died in avalanches, road accidents and collapsing mud-brick houses due to heavy snowfalls in rural areas, according to Afghan officials.

Since then they have given no further figures for non-disease related deaths, but officials said at least 15 people were killed when avalanches hit their mud-brick villages in Ghor over the past seven days, though it is unclear if those deaths are included in the official total toll.

The Afghan government has rejected the more pessimistic predictions of the death toll from the bad weather, which has also cut a swathe of avalanches and floods across Pakistan and India.

Health minister Fatimie stressed that according to Ministry of Health statistics a year-round average of 713 children under five die every day in Afghanistan of different diseases.

Afghanistan's infant mortality rate is one of the highest in the world and the United Nations estimates that 80 percent of these deaths are preventable. Many Afghan children are already malnourished and weakened by weeks of freezing temperatures and the situation could become worse with cut-off parts of the country suffering a lack of food and fuel.

Afghan authorities and the US-led coalition forces have been air dropping humanitarian supplies in Ghor in recent days, Fatimie said. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Geneva said Tuesday it had launched an emergency appeal for 686,330 dollars to help some 17,500 internally displaced Afghans or returning refugees from neighbouring countries.

"Many of the victims are children, who have been suffering from respiratory infections, pneumonia and whooping cough, and the elderly, who have died of hypothermia," Fatima Gailani, president of the Afghan Red Crescent Society, said. -AFP