Hundreds of thousands face death and starvation in Somalia if the ongoing conflict in the region will keep international relief workers from reaching the affected areas, according to reports by the United Nations World Food Program (WFP).

The international body has indicated over the weekend that Islamist militants come between millions of Somalis and relief supplies as aid workers are in danger of being harmed by armed groups should they venture into territories where lawlessness rules.

Speaking at a media briefing held in Nairobi, Kenya on Sunday, Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd decried the international community's apparent lack of political will to act in resolving the looming international crisis that the WFP said would likely impact on up to 11 million people living in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti.

The former Australian prime minister was quoted by Reuters as saying that "there is no uniformity in the security situation on the ground ... and we need to cut the U.N. some slack."

Rudd underscored the fact that hundreds of thousands could soon perish, many of them young children, if insurgents would continue to hamper efforts by relief and aid groups to gain access in the southern part of Somalia.

In making his case for a solid action from leading members of the United Nations, Rudd told Reuters that "we either stand back, sit on our hands and do nothing and wait for the perfect world to arrive ... or we get in there and we work now."

The top diplomat from Australia, however, acknowledged that any decision to intervene in the so-called 'Horn of Africa' would entail "a complex, dangerous and risky task."

Noting the spiralling effects of severe droughts, continuously inflating food prices, dwindling food supplies and the rising incidence of violence among the country's warring groups, the UN has declared last week that two regions in south of Somalia are dangerously creeping into full-blown famine.

Yet according to WFP executive director Josette Sheeran, international aids were being prevented from reaching the affected Somalis as armed groups continue to pose threats on relief workers planning to deliver the necessary lifelines and food supplies on the worst-hit areas.

At present, Sheeran told Reuters that the WFP is armed with up to $220 million worth of pledges committed by international donors as she revealed that the agency is considering the possibility of sending food-drops in regions of Somalis where rebel activities are notably high.