UNITED NATIONS - The UN on Friday launched an appeal for $4.4 billion, the largest aid request in the world body's history, to help the estimated 6.8 million people in need of dire humanitarian assistance in Syria this year, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters here.

"In Geneva on Friday, the United Nations launched an appeal for Syria, asking for $4.4 billion for the whole of 2013," Nesirky said at a daily news briefing.

At this time, the "UN appeals for Syria have already received about 1.24 billion dollars in funding so far, leaving 3.1 billion dollars in unmet requirements until the end of the year", he said.

The UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, Valerie Amos, said that "an estimated 6.8 million people now need urgent help", Nesirky said here.

"That is one in three Syrians in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, in addition to the more than 80,000 people who she said have been killed," Nesirky said, quoting Amos, who is also the head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Meanwhile, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, Antonio Guterres, said, "The situation in the region has worsened dramatically, with over 1.6 million Syrians now sheltering in the neighboring countries and in North Africa."