New data released by UNICEF and published online in The Lancet, a British medical journal, shows a continuing decline in the death rate for youngsters under the age of 5, a trend that has continued for the last two decades.

Progress has been seen in every part of the world, including some of the least developed countries. But UNICEF said the global rate of improvement is still not sufficient to reach the U.N. Millennium Development Goal of a two-thirds reduction in under-five child mortality between 1990 and 2015.

"Compared to 1990, 10,000 fewer children are dying every day," UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman said in a statement. "While progress is being made, it is unacceptable that each year 8.8 million children die before their fifth birthday."

According to the latest data, Africa and Asia account for 93 percent of all under-five deaths.

"A handful of countries with large populations bear a disproportionate burden of under-five deaths, with 40 percent of the world's under-five deaths occurring in just three countries: India, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo," Veneman said.

"Unless mortality in these countries can be significantly reduced, the (U.N.) MDG targets will not be met," she warned.

The two leading causes of under-five mortality are pneumonia and diarrhea, according to the data.

UNICEF said that in some countries, progress is slow or non-existent.

In South Africa, the agency said the under-five mortality has increased since 1990.

South Africa has the highest number of women living with HIV, and the health of a child is inextricably linked to the health of its mother, UNICEF said.

It said recent commitments by the South African government to step up efforts to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the HIV virus should help improve the situation.

Public health experts credit the continuing decline in the under-five death rate to increased immunizations against diseases like measles, the use of insecticide-treated bed nets to prevent malaria, and vitamin A supplements.

The new data shows a 28 percent decline in the under-5 mortality rate, from 90 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 65 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2008.

A key example of progress is Malawi, where under-five mortality has fallen from 225 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 100 per 1,000 in 2008, putting the impoverished African country on track to meet the Millennium Development Goal, UNICEF said.

In addition to Malawi, it said six other countries have annually reduced under-five mortality by at least 4.5 percent _ Nepal, Bangladesh, Eritrea, Laos, Mongolia and Bolivia.

UNICEF also cited "impressive gains" in countries that are not fully on track to meet the goal _ Niger, Mozambique and Ethiopia.

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