AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — A tough-talking former Republican governor with friends in the Trump administration has become the unexpected booster of one of the United Nations agencies facing the threat of U.S. funding cuts.

David Beasley, new executive director of the World Food Program, says he will use his Washington connections to defend his cash-strapped agency in what he expects to be a "dog fight" over the 2018 U.S. budget.

The former South Carolina governor told The Associated Press late Sunday that the stakes are high. He says his agency has only $2 billion of $9 billion in needed donations for 2017.

He says four countries have been hit by famine or are on the brink of being hit and that 600,000 children are "seriously at risk of death" if funding gaps aren't closed.