The U.N. World Food Programme has cut by half the amount of food assistance it can give to hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon due to lack of funds, the agency said on Friday.

The WFP was forced to halt its regional food assistance programme briefly in December for 1.7 million Syrian refugees for the same reason but restarted it after receiving enough donations in a fundraising drive.

On Friday the agency said it had received a new donation from the United States which had prevented it from suspending the programme altogether.

But the WFP said it would still need to cut the amount it puts on electronic vouchers that allow refugees to buy food in stores.

The most vulnerable of the 440,000 Syrian refugees living outside camps in Jordan will get only $14 (?9) per person in August while the remaining refugees, who are slightly better off, will receive only $7 each, the agency said in a statement.