PESHAWAR, March 1: The United Kingdom has pledged $10 million to Pakistan to help eradicate polio by the end of the current year, UK's international development minister Gareth Thomas said here on Monday.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting with NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani, Mr Thomas, who was accompanied by World Health Organization Representative Khalif Bile Mohamud, said the money was being given to fill the gaps and enable Pakistan achieve its goal of the eradication of polio.

"It will be a huge prize. The elimination of polio will not only be a huge prize for Pakistan but the whole world," Mr Thomas said after administering polio drops to a group of schoolchildren gathered at the Chief Minister's House.

"It is a realistic goal to eradicate polio by the end of 2005," he said. The $10 million assistance to Pakistan, he said, would be for the NWFP, which, he added, had made commendable efforts to eradicate polio.

The NWFP had reported 33 polio cases in 2003, the figure, however, dropped sharply to eight cases in 2004. Health Minister Inayatullah told Dawn that seven of the eight cases reported by July last year had all been found to be vaccinated.

He said the eighth case detected recently was also found to have been vaccinated. Speaking on the occasion, WHO representative Bile Mohamud appreciated the highest level of political commitment from the NWFP government to eradicate polio.

He noted that till 1988 Pakistan had been reporting 20,000 polio cases every year but the figure, he added, had now shrunk to just 54. No polio case had been reported in the NWFP in the high-risk autumn season this year, he said, and hoped that the $10 million dollars assistance would enable Pakistan to achieve polio eradication by the end of the current year.

He said his organisation would assist Pakistan improve its technical needs to achieve that goal. The WHO official, however, stressed the need for greater access to polio immunization teams to reach the few remaining children under the age of one year and the need for finding local solutions to local problems to reach certain areas.

"These are the two challenges and I hope the government will address those problems," he said. Chief Minister Akram Durrani thanked the WHO, the Unicef and the DFID for their help and assistance in the eradication of polio and pledged his government's full commitment to help achieve zero-polio by the end of the current year.

He said during his meeting with the WHO representatives and British international development minister, he had sought assistance in the health, education and agriculture sector.

He said the donor agencies had assured him of their help in this regard. Mr Durrani said he had also raised the issues with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz during his meeting with the latter in Islamabad and added that the federal government had assured to help the NWFP.