1.3m children 'in severe poverty'

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Research found that around one in 10 children are in families on such low incomes that basic needs including heating and a proper diet are compromised.

Save the Children said radical action is needed to tackle the problem and called on ministers to commit an additional £4 billion a year to meet the target of halving child poverty by 2010.

Using a new measure for severe poverty - which looks at household income in conjunction with deprivation data - the charity estimated that 1.3 million children in the UK are in severe poverty. For a couple with a child, it means trying to survive on just £7,000 a year - less than £134 a week.

In London the situation is even worse, with one in every six children falling below the severe poverty line, research suggested.

Save the Children said it is an "outrage" that in the fourth-richest country in the world so many children are missing out on basic requirements such as living in a warm home, having a good diet or going on a school trip.

The report, published a week before Gordon Brown takes over as prime minister, called for a further £4 billion in annual investment. It also urged the introduction of seasonal grants to help the poorest households at the most expensive times of the year.

Recent figures suggest that the Government is way off its target of halving child poverty by 2010, and eradicating it by 2020. Last year the number of children living in poverty in the UK rose for the first time in a decade, with 3.8 million children now living in relative poverty when housing costs are factored in.

A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions, said: "Our child poverty strategy and welfare reform proposals will help more people get the support they need to get into work and develop careers which will help lift them and their children out of poverty.

"We have lifted 600,000 children out of poverty since 1997, and measures announced in this year's Budget will lift a further 200,000 children out of poverty - these are some of the most deprived children in the country."