MILAN, May 16 (Reuters) - Dry and hot weather in central Afghanistan may hit grain crops and worsen tight food supplies in the impoverished country, the United Nations' food agency FAO said on Friday.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation said it feared Afghanistan would not have enough water for pasture or the May-August rain-fed grain crop and the later irrigated wheat crop after a shortage of rain during the winter.

"The threat of a poor harvest comes in the midst of an already very tight food security situation," the Rome-based FAO said in a statement.

The aftermath of war, two severe droughts in 2001/02 and 2006 and an ongoing insurgency have increased food supply problems and poverty in Afghanistan.

Half the population live below the poverty line and about 2.55 million people receive food aid, the agency said.

Afghanistan's central areas which normally receive 400-800 mm of rainfall annually have developed a rainfall deficit of 200 mm from October 2007 to March 2008. Rapid and early snow melt has complicated the situation further, the FAO said.

A poor harvest would reduce available food supplies in the country and increase the need for imported wheat and food aid. Afghanistan needs to import more than 0.5 million tonnes of wheat to meet basic food needs, it said. (Reporting by Svetlana Kovalyova, Editing by Peter Blackburn)

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