UNITED NATIONS, Dec 25 (AFP): The UN General Assembly yesterday approved a nearly 17 percent hike in the world body's current 2008-2009 budget to 4.87 billion dollars (3.48 billion euros).

After overnight deliberations, it endorsed recommendations from its budgetary panel for the increase from 4.17 to 4.87 billion dollars, including 449 million dollars for funding the joint UN-African Union mission in Sudan's war-wracked Darfur for the first six months of 2009.

The increased allocation for UNAMID is based on a revised deployment plan and projected expenditures totaling roughly 1.5 billion dollars for the period July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009.

Last week, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said only 60 percent of what is mandated to be a 26,000-strong UNAMID will be deployed by the end of this year and 85 percent by next March to try to end more than five years of deadly civil strife in the Sudanese western region.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Ban hailed the approval of the additional budgetary resources and administrative measures by the General Assembly.