GENEVA, May 15 (Reuters) - Roads and bridges in Central African Republic are in such disrepair that the United Nations must fix them before delivering food aid to thousands of people, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday.

The WFP is seeking to boost its emergency food rations to 230,000 people, but will need $3.5 million in additional donor funds over the next nine months to repair roads and bridges, as well as $25 million for the food itself.

"The conflict in Central African Republic has brought the private sector almost to a complete halt," Simon Pluess, spokesman for the U.N. agency, told a Geneva news conference. "The current infrastructure cannot cope with the scope of our operations," he said.

Many who have fled fighting in the northwest of the country are living in the bush and subsisting on wild roots and berries, Pluess said.

Central African Republic, a landlocked former French colony, ranks near the bottom of almost all development rankings. Its ill-resourced government has control of little beyond the capital Bangui and banditry is rife.

The U.N. children's agency UNICEF has said the country faces a growing humanitarian disaster, with the lives of a million people -- a quarter of the population -- disrupted by civil and regional warfare involving various rebel groups.

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