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The United Nations says a "catastrophic" number of Kenyans will starve to death unless immediate donations arrive to buy food for 3.5 million people facing prolonged drought.

The World Food Program has enough rice and maize to last until the end of April, but will run out of vegetable oil, beans and other staples by the end of March, officials warned at the weekend.

The UN food agency said it has received only about a tenth of the funding it needs to feed the Kenyans and about 7.5 million people at risk elsewhere in the Horn of Africa.

UN officials said five years of drought have created some of the most dire situations in decades across a vast swatch of northeast Africa.

The Kenyan government has declared a national emergency. Dozens of people have already died in northeastern and eastern Kenya, while dead cattle and other animals dot the landscape.

The UN estimates that hunger and thirst killed hundreds of people and tens of thousands of livestock in Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia.

"This is as bad as it gets. The consequences are absolutely catastrophic," said James Morris, the agency's executive director, who visited some of the worst hit areas of Kenya on Saturday.

The World Food Program said it needs the equivalent of $255 million to buy more than 29,000 tonnes of food each month until February 2007. It has only received $28 million.

"We will urgently need more help in the next 10 days because it takes time to buy, ship and distribute food," Morris told Reuters news agency. "It is not something you can do overnight."

Update: NAIROBI, March 7 (Reuters) - Heavy rains have drenched the Kenyan capital this week, stalling cars in the streets, but weather forecasters say a months-long drought that has put millions of people at risk is not over yet.

While the short rains have lifted the hopes of farmers who are rapidly planting crops, others fear flash floods could end up causing damage and know that only long, sustained rainfall will help drive the drought away.

"People are asking if this the end of the drought, but what we are saying is its effects are going to persist for a long time," Peter Ambenje, assistant director of the Kenya Meteorological Department, told Reuters on Tuesday. "It is not the beginning of the long rains" he said.

The United Nations estimates that at least 6.25 million people are in need of immediate food aid across east and central Africa because of drought, which has killed hundreds of people and left tens of thousands of head of livestock dead.