DAKAR (AFP) - North and west African countries are standing shoulder to shoulder in the fight against giant swarms of locusts marauding through the desert states, threatening food supplies for millions of the world's most impoverished people.

And with the finger-length insects winging their way into Sudan, already facing what the United Nations calls the world's current worst humanitarian disaster, such regional cooperation is seen as all the more important, particularly in the face of a potential locust plague.

Should the swarms spread to Sudan, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) locust chief Clive Elliot warned Monday, a plague - a simultaneous large-scale infestation in two regions - could come "within weeks".

"If they established across Sudan they can then cross the Red Sea into the Arabian Peninsula and then to Iran, Pakistan and India - which is quite a vast area," Elliott told AFP.

FAO in late July convened a meeting of the nine Maghreb and north African states most threatened by the hoards of desert locusts whose swarms can travel 100 kilometers (60 miles) a day, spanning several square kilometers as they range upwards from 80 million insects.

The UN body urged donors to contribute US$83 million (68 million euros) to help Algeria, Chad, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Senegal and Tunisia thwart the advance of the locusts who have already chewed up some 6.5 million hectares (16 million acres) of arable land at the height of the crucial planting season.

Taking the lead in providing assistance to poorer regional neighbour is Algeria, which has dispatched 16 terrestrial anti-locust teams to Mauritania, the worst hit country, as well as/and Mali and Niger.

Morocco, which was dark with locusts until late July, is also coming to the aid of newly infested countries despite fears that the swarms could return again in October.

"Instead of waiting around we might as well do something to help the others," said Abdelaziz Arifi of the Moroccan agriculture ministry.

Even countries that have so far been spared by this year's locust swarms, such as Senegal, Burkina Faso and tiny Gambia, are joining the regional efforts, mindful that they too court potential risk of an invasion.

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