Japan is to provide US$1.7 million to fund a second phase of a malaria control project and programmes to prevent childhood diseases in the Republic of Congo, where malaria accounts for at least 40 percent of all illnesses and about 34 percent of deaths, officials said.

The funds will be channelled through the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), whose representative in Congo, Koen Vanormelingen, signed the funding agreement in Brazzaville on Tuesday with Japan's ambassador, Hiromi Okamoto.

"The second phase of the project is in response to the need to integrate interventions meant for the survival of children and pregnant women in the Congo," said Vanormelingen.

The financing will cover the second phase of the project, which will run until 2008, and follows the first phase in 2005-2006. The first phase was also funded by Japan with about $2 million.

"It [the grant] will contribute towards the government's efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals," Vanormelingen said.

Vanormelingen said insecticide-treated nets (INTs) coverage in the country had risen from 6 percent in 2004 to about 27 percent since the effort to roll back malaria began.

"The interventions have made it possible to ensure the availability of INTs for women and children and guaranteed access to preventative malaria treatment to all pregnant women," Vanormelingen said.

"This second phase of the project should not only reinforce the gains realised in the first phase, but also significantly reduce the morbidity and mortality indicators in both mothers and children," said Emilienne Raoul, Congo's Minister of Health, Social Affairs and Family Affairs.

Malaria is responsible for at least 50 percent of all hospital admissions among children younger than five, and is blamed for nearly 17 percent of low birth-weight among infants, said Vanormelingen.