More than a million people in Darfur will starve this summer unless new aid agencies are deployed, a joint Sudanese-UN assessment says.

It also says there could be major water shortages within two weeks. The warning follows Sudan's expulsion of 13 large foreign aid agencies, mostly from Darfur, the BBC reported.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir accuses them of spying for the International Criminal Court, which has issued an arrest warrant against him for alleged war crimes in Darfur.

Four of the expelled non-governmental organisations (NGOs) served some 1,1 million people, the report released late Tuesday said.

UN humanitarian affairs coordinator Ameerah Haq told journalists in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum that "the most critical needs are being filled for now".

"However, by the beginning of May, as the hunger gap approaches, and unless the World Food Programme has found partners able to take on the mammoth distribution task, these people will not receive their rations," she concluded.

The assessment team toured Darfur from 11-19 March, and the report was co-signed by UN and Sudanese officials.

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