The head of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) called on world leaders to make African women's health a priority on their development agenda, the UN said in a press release Friday.

The health of African women is lagging behind the rest of the world, UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid said at the 4th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD IV), organized by Japan and the UN Development Programme.

"Of all the Millennium Development Goals, goal number five - preventing women's deaths during pregnancy and childbirth - is generating the least resources and lagging the furthest behind. And African women are paying the price," Obaid said.

She also called on all the world leaders "to make the health of women a political and development priority."

In a related development at the summit, Japan announced a doubling of development assistance for Africa over the next five years.

TICAD IV priorities include boosting economic growth, ensuring human security, securing achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, consolidation of peace and democratization and climate change.

Japan said it will feed the results of the summit into the G-8 meeting of leading industrialized nations, which will be held in Tokyo in July and chaired by Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.

(Xinhua News Agency/Agencies May 31, 2008)