$1.7 million for mosquito nets

An international children's fund has announced plans to spend $1.7 million (£966,000) tackling Ghana's biggest killer of under five-year-olds.

Malaria is most deadly in older people and young children, says the World Health Organization.

It is carried by mosquitoes that breed around stagnant water, and is most prevalent during the rainy season.

The cash will go on buying insecticide-treated mosquito nets for children's beds.

Unicef executive director Ann Veneman announced the spending at a forum on the effectiveness of aid in Accra.

She said that it was unacceptable that a preventable disease claimed the lives of so many.

According to Unicef, there has been a 60 per cent drop in the mortality rate among under-fives since 1960.

Aid from private sources as well as public agencies had helped fight poverty in the country, she said.

However, there was still a long way to go with conflict, corruption, HIV/Aids and increasing prices taking their toll on progress.

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