WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Friday announced tens of millions of dollars of additional funding for Central American governments to address the root causes of migration that have led to a surge of migrants, many of them children, into the United States.

The United States said it would launch a US$40 million (S$50 million) programme to improve security in Guatemala to reduce pressures forcing migration to United States and a US$25 million programme to provide services to youth in El Salvador who are vulnerable to organized-crime pressure, the White House said in a statement.