HANOI, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Some 7,000 children in Vietnam die due to malnutrition-related factors every year, according to local newspaper Pioneer on Tuesday.

    Up to 1.6 million children under five suffered from underweight malnutrition, and 2.6 million had stunted growth in 2007, the paper quoted a report at an international meeting on the issue opened here Monday.

    Food insecurity caused by natural disasters, poverty, and nutrition unawareness of people in mountainous and remote areas are big challenges to nutrition intervention programs, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung said at the meeting.

    Vietnam has targeted to reduce the malnutrition rate among its children to under 15 percent by 2015.