GENEVA - THE toll from Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic rose again on Tuesday with 1,174 people now known to have died from the disease since August, the United Nations children's fund Unicef said.

'The disease is still popping up in the country which means it is still not under control,' Unicef representative in Zimbabwe Roeland Monasch told a press conference in Geneva by telephone.

Almost 3,000 new cases have been diagnosed since the last UN figures were published five days ago, Mr Monasch said, taking the total number of confirmed infections to 23,712.

The previous toll had been 1,123, meaning that 51 new cholera deaths had been confirmed since Thursday.

Also on Tuesday, the International Federation of the Red Cross said it was launching an emergency appeal for 10 million Swiss francs (S$13.05 million) to help 1.5 million people at risk in Zimbabwe.

'We face a new tragedy as the year draws to an end. Zimbabwe's cholera outbreak, coupled with hunger and Aids, has created a veritable deadly molotov cocktail,' said Mr Encho Gospodinov, director of the federation's communications and policy division.

Red Cross aid, including water purification equipment, will be mainly distributed to three regions in Zimbabwe where the mortality rate is 'abnormally high' at 10 per cent, he added.

Earlier this month, President Robert Mugabe appeared to deny cholera's existence in the country, proclaiming in a radio address that 'there is no cholera'.

His spokesman later said his comments were meant as 'sarcasm' after they drew an international outcry.

Mr Mugabe then accused former colonial power Britain of deliberately introducing the disease as 'a genocidal onslaught on the people of Zimbabwe'.

The epidemic adds to the economic and political crisis roiling the impoverished southern African country, with inflation spinning to stratospheric proportions and a political stalemate reigning between Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai over disagreements on a power-sharing government.

Washington had hoped the UN Security Council would adopt a non-binding resolution condemning Mr Mugabe for failing to protect his people from the cholera outbreak, but a Western diplomat said the plan had run into opposition from neighbouring South Africa. -- AFP