At least 42 people, most of them children, have died from a suspected cholera outbreak in southern Somalia, doctors said.

More than 240 people are being treated in hopsital for cholera-like symptoms, doctors said on Tuesday, adding that a lack of proper medicines and medical facilities makes it likely that many more will die.

"The children are dying from the disease because of a lack of access to proper medical centers," said Ahmed Nour Afey, a doctor who works at a provincial hospital in Marka town in Somalia's southern Lower Shabelle region.

"Most of them die on their way to hospitals at the main towns in the region," he said.

The recent cholera outbreak has occurred in three southern regions of Somalia: Banadir, Gedo and Lower Shabelle.

Somalia has some of the world's worst health indicators, with life expectancy at birth is 46 years, while on average a quarter of children die before they reach the age of five.

The first reported outbreaks of cholera in Somalia came in December last year, with reports of outbreaks in the four central regions of the country. Doctors say it has now spread.

PHOTO CAPTION

A boy runs towards a burning car on the streets in Mogadishu after a government convoy came under attack March 13, 2007. (Reuters)