"The international community must renew its efforts to help the people of the affected regions take control of their lives again," Jan Egeland, the UN under secretary general for humanitarian affairs, said in a statement received by AFP in Moscow.

"The aftermath of the Chernobyl accident is simply too much for people in the contaminated areas of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine to cope with alone."

"We simply cannot turn our backs," said Egeland, who is also the UN coordinator of international cooperation on Chernobyl. "We can and must do more to help bring development and hope to the affected people."

In the early morning hours of April 26, 1986, the core of Chernobyl's fourth reactor exploded and for 10 days the station spewed radioactive materials into the air that were equivalent to more than 200 bombs exploded over Hiroshima and contaminated a large part of Europe.

Nearly 8.4 million people in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia were exposed to radiation and 150,000 square kilometers (60,000 square miles) were contaminated and today some six million people continue to live in affected areas, the UN said in its statement.

Some 2.3 million Ukrainians, including 450,000 children, suffer today from radiation-related illnesses, including many with the cancer of the thyroid, according to the Ukrainian health ministry.

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