GENEVA, Nov 20 (AFP) - The world could see the re-emergence of old diseases if more money is not spent on vaccines, the World Health Organisation (WHO), UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and World Bank warned on Wednesday.

While vaccines have saved billions of lives in the past 100 years, they are still not reaching those most in need, the three organisations said in their joint 'State of the World's Vaccines and Immunization' report.

"If urgent and strategic action is not taken to close the gaps in funding, research and global immunization coverage, the world will see the re-introduction of old diseases and the emergence of new infections," it said.

The report is being launched in Dakar, Senegal, at a meeting of the partners of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).

Almost three quarters of the world's children are currently being reached with essential vaccines but the report complained of wide variations between North and South.

Children in rich countries have access to additional, newer vaccines against diseases such as hepatitis.

But in Sub-Saharan Africa, only half of children have access to basic immunization against common diseases, such as tuberculosis, measles, tetanus and whooping cough, the report noted.

In 2000, 1.7 million people died from tuberculosis, which is today re-emerging, fuelled by the rising prevalence of co-infection with HIV, especially in Africa, and by increasing resistance to medicines.

The report underscored the urgent need for a new vaccine against tuberculosis, as well as for a vaccine against malaria, which kills about one million people a year, mostly African children.

Nearly three million people, two million of them children, die every year from common vaccine-preventable diseases.

An extra 250 million dollars a year would enable at least 10 million more children to be reached with basic vaccines, and another 100 million dollars a year would cover the cost of newer vaccines, the report said.

"Vaccines are among the most cost effective public health interventions. Today no child should die from a vaccine-preventable disease. We need to invest more -- and more rationally -- in vaccine coverage and research, and ensure access in all corners of the globe," Carol Bellamy, UNICEF's executive director, said in a written statement.

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