Several million Iraqis remain desperately hungry despite a better cereals crop and the lifting of economic sanctions, U.N. food agencies said. "While starvation has been averted, chronic malnutrition persists among several million vulnerable people," the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a statement about a new report on Iraqi food supplies and nutrition. "The situation of mothers and children in central and southern Iraq is of particular concern," Rome-based FAO said.