Food assistance has been delivered to 71,500 civilians in four limited-access Syrian governorates for the first time in months, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) said Monday.

"We have seen over the last few weeks, a certain degree of increased access to areas we haven't able to reach for some time," Amir Abdulla, deputy executive director of WFP, told a press conference.

The regions were Idleb, rural Damascus, Dar'a and Deir-ez-Zor, where an estimated one million people live in besieged or hard-to-reach areas.

Widespread insecurity and restrictions were the main factors hindering humanitarian deliveries in several areas in at least 12 of the 14 Syrian governorates, according to WFP.

In February, WFP dispatched almost 743,000 family food rations to assist over 3.7 million people in the war-ridden country for a month.

However, Abdulla expressed concerns over the need to reduce food rations in March due to a funds shortage.

"Through the month of March, because of reduced funding levels, we have to reduce rations slightly," he said.

Abdulla warned that "if we don't receive contributions over the next few months, we would see rations cut potentially up to 50 percent."

Abdulla said WFP needed 300 million US dollars to meet food requirements in Syria over the next three months, and as much as 1.5 billion US dollars needed to address food assistance before the year end.