More than 32.6 per cent of children in Vietnam are malnourished, stunted and underweight, making the country one of the world's 20 worst performers in child nutrition, a report states.

Malnutrition in children is most common in Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands), Northwestern area and the northern part of the central area, the Ministry of Health's National Institute of Nutrition reported.

Deputy Minister Tran Chi Liem on Monday (February 16) told a national conference on nutrition in Ha Noi that nutrition improvement activities begun last year had reduced the rate of malnutrition in children by one percentage point over the previous year.

But the programme had been hindered by the economic downturn and the outbreak of epidemics, he said.

He asked the conference participants to focus their discussion on solutions.

Child Malnutrition Prevention Programme secretary Truong Hong Son said targets this year included increasing breastfeeding rate in the babies' first six months by 5 per cent and the number of mothers having proper knowledge of nutrition by 10 per cent .

A target was to reduce underweight by 1.1 per cent and stunting by 1.3 per cent, Son said.

The ministry planned to keep strengthening public communication and education and the care of pregnant women. Nutrition recovery activities and supplement nutrition for pregnant women would also be included.

Other plans included providing vitamin A for children from six months old to five years old and worming for children aged two to five who were living in targeted communes.

National Institute of Nutrition director Nguyen Cong Khan said Vietnam had made fast and sustainable progress in reducing the malnutrition rate in recent years.

He said reducing the growth-stunting rate to under 10 per cent within 15-20 years was possible. In the short term, it was hoped that Vietnam could reduce the underweight rate to under 15 per cent by 2015.

-Asia News Network