Islamic nations say will tackle maternal deaths: U.S.

An Afghan woman holds her child as she waits in line in the outskirts of Peshawar April 22, 2010.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Islamic countries, home to about half the estimated 400,000 women worldwide who die in childbirth each year, have promised to cut maternal mortality, U.S. Secretary of Health Kathleen Sebelius said on Monday.

Sebelius said she had also discussed the need to ensure women's rights during her closed-door talks in Geneva with health ministers from the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), made up of 57 Muslim states.

They met on the sidelines of the annual ministerial assembly of the World Health Organization. WHO Director-General Margaret Chan warned again on Monday that progress had been slow in reducing maternal and newborn mortality, key targets of the Millennium Development Goals due to be met by 2015.

"Half of the maternal deaths are in OIC countries. We focused on working together on those Millennium Development Goals which are lagging way behind," Sebelius told Reuters.

"They were very receptive and eager to work on polio eradication, building health systems and better mother and child health," she added.

The Obama administration has been trying to forge closer relations with Islamic countries, particularly those battling Islamist militants, but faces domestic criticism for ties with some countries where women are denied equal rights.

Earlier, Sebelius said in a speech to the WHO meeting that President Barack Obama's $63 billion six-year Global Health Initiative, unveiled this month, would expand U.S. programs in the world's poorest countries.

Chief among its aims is to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health, she said. The program aims to make pregnancy and childbirth safer and increase the availability of family planning and other reproductive health services.

Worldwide, some 8.8 million children died before their fifth birthday last year, down 30 percent since 1990, WHO says.

"While some gains have been made, mothers and children continue to die at disturbingly high rates. It's not that we don't know how to save these lives. We have evidence-based interventions that we know can improve maternal and child health," Sebelius said.

The ability of women to access health services and information also affects the health and stability of their communities, she said.

Spanish Health Minister Trinidad Jimenez, speaking for the European Union (EU), voiced deep regret that progress in improving child and maternal health, in particular sexual and reproductive health, was "off track."

Of the large number of children under five and pregnant women who died last year, "Most deaths were because they lacked very basic prevention and care," Jimenez said.

(Editing by Jonathan Lynn)