China became the world's third-largest food aid donor in 2005, the same year it stopped receiving assistance from the World Food Program, while the United States and the European Union remained the top two contributors, the UN agency said Thursday.

Donations from China almost tripled to 636,000 tons and accounted for more than half of the rise in overall food aid donations last year, the World Food Program said in its annual report.

Most of China's aid went to North Korea with the rest going to Liberia, Guinea Bissau, Sri Lanka and a dozen other countries, according to the report.

The report was based on figures from the database of the International Food Aid Information System, which was developed by the WFP to help manage donations from around the world.

According to the WFP, global food aid grew by 10 percent to 9 tons in 2005, with the United States providing 4.4 tons, or 49 percent of the donations.

The EU totaled 1.65 tons, the report said. Japan, the third-largest donor in 2004, was fourth in 2005, donating more than 440,000 tons.

Wheat and wheat flour were the main commodities donated, followed by coarse grains like maize and maize meal, and rice.

"Donations of food made the difference between life and death after the tsunami, the Pakistan earthquake and in Sudan, so we are extraordinarily grateful to all who gave last year," James T. Morris, the WFP's executive director, said in a statement.

He warned that there was still not enough "to meet the most basic needs of millions of individuals."

The WFP began providing food aid to China in 1979, meeting the immediate food needs of more than 30 million poor Chinese and helping build infrastructure in their communities through programs exchanging food for work and training.

It made its final food donation to China in April 2005, a move that heralded the country's gradual emergence from decades of dire poverty and hunger.

Incomes and living conditions in much of China, however, remain far behind those of the wealthy coastal cities. The government has promised to spend heavily in the relatively poor countryside, where nearly two-thirds of the country's 1.3 billion people live.

The WFP's report said sub-Saharan Africa for the first time received more than half of all the food aid, with Ethiopia receiving the most. Other major recipients included Sudan, Uganda, Eritrea and Kenya.

The amount given to Asia increased by 14 percent, the report said, with North Korea receiving the second-largest amount of aid worldwide, mostly from China and South Korea. Bangladesh, Indonesia and Sri Lanka were the other Asian beneficiaries.

Deliveries to the Middle East and North Africa dropped 53 percent to 32,000 tons, while aid to Latin America and the Caribbean increased by 8 percent to 54,000 tons, the report said.

The WFP said it delivered 54 percent of the world's food aid in 2005, reaching some 97 million people.