The United Nations on Wednesday launched an appeal for 7 billion U.S. dollars to provide urgent aid next year to 30 million people in 31 countries worldwide.

"Our aim is to help those most vulnerable people survive the coming year, and enable them to start working their way out of vulnerability and despair towards the dignity, safety and self- sufficiency to which every human being has a right," UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon said in the foreword to the Humanitarian Appeal 2009.

The appeal is the biggest ever launched since the creation of the UN Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP) in 1991, according to a statement issued by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

It comprises 12 consolidated appeals for the Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Iraq, Kenya, occupied Palestinian territory, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, the West African region, and Zimbabwe.

The appeal also marks the culmination of a vast undertaking in which 360 aid organizations including UN agencies, non- governmental organizations and other international bodies have united to meet the world's major humanitarian challenges in a strategic, coordinated, effective, and prioritized way.

"Millions of people continue to struggle with long-running conflicts, natural disasters, the effects of climate change, and high food prices," said UN Under-Secretary-General John Holmes, who presided over the launch of the appeal in Geneva.

"The 2009 Appeal offers concrete help to these people in distress," he said.

"The 7 billion dollars that we seek equates to, for every 100 dollars of national income in the rich countries, only a few cents of aid," he added.