MBABANE, Feb 19 (AFP) - Swaziland's prime minister has declared a national disaster due to the combined effect of AIDS, drought and hail and appealed to the international community for help.

Prime Minister Themba Dlamini made the declaration -- the first since 1992 -- on Wednesday and announced that the disaster had been gazetted, the Times of Swaziland reported Thursday.

Dlamini told the paper: "The kingdom of Swaziland is seriously facing a humanitarian crisis that stems from three adjoining fundamental trends, namely drought and land degradation, increasing poverty and HIV/AIDS.

"The combination of these trends and severity of the situation leave no doubt in my mind that the kingdom of Swaziland is indeed in a desperate scenario, which requires urgent national and international intervention," he said.

The tiny kingdom, wedged between South Africa and Mozambique, has suffered its fourth successive year of drought, combined with a serious problem of AIDS, which affects about 38.6 percent of the adult population, according to the latest government figures.

Dlamini, who had concluded a tour of the hardest-hit eastern areas said: "Indeed the situation is bad. The continuing drought and lack of rain have prevented many planting their fields."

"The deadly combination of HIV/AIDS and poverty has produced a novel situation that has increased the vulnerability of families," Dlamini said.

Sarah Laughton, the UN World Food Programme's (WFP) emergency co-ordinator in Swaziland, said the organisation estimated that around one in five people were in need of aid.

"The situation has definitely worsened since October last year, when people were still hopeful about the rain. What happened is in December and January is that it had become clear that the rains were not sufficient," she told AFP.

"People are resilient, but their ability to cope has been severely stretched."

She said the WFP welcomed the declaration, as some donors had been waiting for such a declaration before deciding on giving more aid.

"You would expect donors to make further contributions," she said.

Laughton added the WFP was pleased that the government had linked the crisis to HIV/AIDS.

"Drought is not the only issue. We are very pleased that he (Dlamini) acknowledged that. It's appropriate."

The WFP distributes food at 179 points around the country on a monthly basis in the form of a package that includes maize, beans, oil and a high-protein corn-soya blend, specifically targeted toward HIV/AIDS sufferers.

Swaziland's agricultural ministry said in December it needed to import some 86,000 tonnes of maize this year, more than half the 148,900 tonnes needed to feed its population of around 1.1 million people.

Farmers have run out of maize stocks as a result of poor harvests.

Some 217,000 Swazis already depend on the food aid provided by WFP and the government.

Much of southern Africa is suffering from lower than average rainfall for the current summer season.

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