The report published this week by the global health agency says that as of July 2008, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia were among the ten countries worldwide that were in the elimination phase of malaria.

The study notes that in January 2007, the United Arab Emirates was the first formerly-endemic country since the 1980s to be certified malaria-free by the WHO, bringing the total number of nations free of the deadly mosquito-borne disease to 92.

The 2008 World Malaria Report outlines that as of July of this year, 109 countries were still endemic for Malaria.

In 2006, the last year with complete global data, WHO estimates there were about 247 million malaria cases among 3.3 billion people at risk and causing about 881,000 deaths, of which 91 percent were in Africa and 85 percent were of children under 5 years.

Peter Salama, UNICEF's chief of health, told reporters that "a child dies from malaria every 30 seconds."

Margaret Chan, WHO director-general, said there has been a "striking turnaround" in Malaria control with more funds and better control tools being used in the fight to control the disease.

But the WHO chief emphasized much more needs to be done in the fight to try and eradicate the disease.

"We know that malaria control interventions work and we can make rapid progress towards ending malaria deaths," said Ray Chambers, the U.N. special envoy on Malaria.

Methods used to combat malaria now includes long-lasting insecticidal nets, artemisinin-based combination therapy, indoor residual spraying of insecticide, and intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy.

In Iraq, the report reveals there were 28 reported malaria cases and no deaths; and in neighboring Saudi Arabia, 1,473 reported cases and no deaths, while Algeria and Egypt reported no cases or deaths, respectively.

With regards to other countries in the region, the WHO report concludes in 2006 Iran reported 18,371 cases and four malaria deaths; and Yemen, 287, 584 cases and 845 malaria deaths. Turkey registered 1,225 malaria cases and no deaths.

However, some nations in the proximity, such as Somalia, Sudan and Djibouti, still have a heavy malaria disease case burden.

War-devastated Somalia had 608,831 reported cases and 3,491 deaths; and Sudan, 5 million cases and 31,975 deaths.