An extra 45 million people could face acute hunger if the Middle East war rages on beyond June, swelling the number worldwide to a "terrible" high, the United Nations warned Tuesday.

The war, now in its third week, and its shockwaves on food and fuel costs could price families out of staple foods far beyond the region, the UN's World Food Programme said.

"The escalating humanitarian fallout from the conflict in the Middle East is growing more concerning by the day," warned WFP deputy executive director Carl Skau.

NEW DELHI, March 17 (Reuters) - India has had no discussions with Iran over the exchange of three vessels, a spokesperson for India's foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

Reuters reported on Monday, citing sources, that Iran had asked for the return of three seized tankers in exchange for India asking for India-flagged or India-bound vessels' safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, a key artery for global crude trade.

(Reporting by Saurabh Sharma and Nidhi Verma, writing by Hritam Mukherjee)

BRUSSELS, March 17 (Reuters) - Kaja Kallas, the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, told Reuters on Tuesday there is no appetite among the bloc's countries to return to business as usual with Russia as energy prices soar in the wake of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

Kallas, who serves as the EU's top diplomat, also said that the EU has started taking into account the unpredictability of the United States under President Donald Trump, and pointed towards diplomacy over military means to keep the Strait of Hormuz open.

ATHENS, March 17 (Reuters) - Greece does not back any separate deals that would allow ships to enterand exitthe Strait of Hormuz but wants a durable solution to safeguard peace in the region, its Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis said on Tuesday.

"We do not think that it is optimal to have separate agreements, so that ships enter or leave the Strait of Hormuz," Gerapetritis told reporters alongside his German counterpart Johann Wadephul in Berlin.

When Israeli and US strikes killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the start of the Middle East war, Iran's security chief Ali Larijani briefly became even more powerful than he had been for decades.

Last June's 12-day Israeli air assault boosted the long-time insider's profile. And in January he was deeply implicated in the Islamic republic's brutal crackdown on anti-government protests.

March 17 (Reuters) - Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has rejected proposals for reducing tensions or for a ceasefire with the United States that were conveyed to Tehran by two intermediary countries, a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday.

Khamenei's stance for revenge against the U.S. and Israel was “very tough and serious” in his first foreign policy session, the official said, without clarifying whether the leader attended the session in person.

Iran targeted oil and gas facilities across the Gulf on Wednesday after Israel killed the Islamic republic's intelligence chief, marking another blow to its leadership.

The death of Esmail Khatib followed that of security chief Ali Larijani, which Iran's new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei -- unseen since succeeding his slain father -- vowed to avenge.

The wave of targeted killings has wiped out many of Iran's senior leaders, though Washington's top intelligence official said the government remained in place, albeit degraded, after nearly three weeks of war.

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA, March 17 (Reuters) - Civilians are paying a heavy price as the war in Lebanon continues to expand, driving death, injuries and displacement the United Nations said on Tuesday.

"Displacement is increasing incredibly quickly. Right now, hundreds of thousands of people left their homes. Many leaving with very little, just the clothes they were wearing," said the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator Imran Riza.

March 17 - More than 400 people were killed and 265 injured in an air strike by Pakistan on a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul, the Afghan Taliban government said on Tuesday, a charge Islamabad denied and said it had targeted a military camp and "terrorist infrastructure". Here is a timeline of the recent clashes between the South Asian neighbours who were close allies years earlier.

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JERUSALEM, March 17 (Reuters) - Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that Iran's security chief Ali Larijani had been killed in an Israeli strike.

There was no confirmation from Iran.

(Reporting by Mayaan Lubell, Writing by Ahmed Elimam, Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)