BEIJING - A new online game to fight world hunger was launched in China by the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) and its Chinese partners on Wednesday.

Freerice launched its Chinese version (http://freerice.sdo.com) to provide Chinese speakers worldwide with an opportunity to improve their English language skills by playing online games, while also helping hungry children.

In Freerice, players face increasingly difficult vocabulary questions and for every correct answer, they earn 10 grains of rice to be donated to the WFP. The donations are paid for by advertisers on the website.

Originally launched in English in 2007, Freerice now attracts an average of 40,000 players a day. They have earned about 100 billion grains of rice - enough to feed 4.8 million people for a day in countries such as Haiti, Uganda, Pakistan and Cambodia.

"Freerice has been a global phenomenon in English, French, Italian and Spanish and is now reaching a critical and influential part of the global population," said Nancy Roman, WFP Director of Communications, Public Policy and Private Partnerships. "China has more Internet users than any other country in the world - they are curious, ambitious and looking for ways to improve their mastery of English."

The rice will be donated to students in impoverished areas in China and other parts of Asia, according to Qin Wei, director of Disaster Relief Program Department of China Foundation For Poverty Alleviation.

"We are in partnership with the WFP to provide food to remote mountainous areas like Yunnan province in southwestern China, and the rice will also be sent to southeastern Asian countries via its school feeding program," Qin said.

"It's very difficult to say any expectation at this stage, but one thing that can be sure is that the promise of this mode will be enormous," said Brett Rierson, director of the WFP China office.

"We have always believed in the Internet as a force for good," said Alan Tan, chairman and chief executive officer of Shanda Games Ltd, another partner of the program. "Young people in particular are looking for games that entertain and educate at the same time. Freerice not only does both - it also allows its players to contribute to the fight against hunger at the same time."

The game will be promoted to Shanda's tens of millions of registered users.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that 848 million people worldwide suffered from chronic hunger from 2003 to 2005.

Across the world, one child dies every six seconds from hunger and malnutrition.