Poverty and disadvantage need to be tackled in order to ensure Northern Ireland children are given the best start in life, the deputy first minister has said.

Mark Durkan is travelling to London on Wednesday to attend a Joint Ministerial Committee on Poverty, chaired by Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown.

On Tuesday, Mr Durkan visited a Sure Start project on Belfast's Shankill Road where he saw the work being done to improve the life chances of both parents and children.

He said while the assembly had set up a number of programmes to deal with poverty, there was still a lot more work to be done.

Almost four million British children live in poverty

A major new study published on Tuesday showed vast differences in the quality of life of children increasingly depends on where they live in the UK.

Save the Children said a third of children still live in poverty, but the problems are far more serious in isolated pockets of England and Scotland.

Young people

The charity's study, The Well-being of Children in the UK, also identifies obesity, fewer chances for free play, homelessness and traffic as growing problems in some areas.

It showed Northern Ireland had the highest infant mortality rate, but the lowest teenage pregnancy rate.

The charity described its report, carried out with the University of York, as the first ever comprehensive study of the state of children in the UK.

Save the Children is calling on the government to carry out similar studies in the future, to identify what needs to be done to improve the lives of young people in all corners of the UK.

Madeleine Tearse, the organisation's UK policy and strategy manager, told BBC News Online: "The UK has the second highest rate of child poverty in Europe... we have got a lot of catching up to do."

Click here to see national differences

According to the report, Wales has the highest levels of child poverty nationally at 33%; compared to 30% each in Scotland and England.

But the charity identifies Whitfield South in the Scottish city of Dundee as the area facing the greatest difficulties overall, with 96.1% of children living below the poverty line.

Teenage pregnancy

Save the Children said its most striking finding was that while children's lives are generally improving UK-wide, there are increasing disparities between different areas.

Children in Scotland appear to have the worst diets, the highest youth suicide rate but the best overall education attainment.

In Wales, it is the highest rate of teenage pregnancies and the worst alcohol and drugs problems that stand out.

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