Humanitarian crisis in Iraq imminent

Warnings intensified of a humanitarian crisis in Iraq on Monday as fighting in the south delayed entry of much needed aid and water grew short in the country's second city, Basra.

In New York, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for urgent action to make sure there was enough water in Basra, a southern city of some two million people where temperatures can soar to 40 degrees Celsius.

And Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country opposes the war, warned of a potential "catastrophe" in Iraq just as British Prime Minister Tony Blair admitted to parliament that Iraqi resistance in the south was hampering delivery of food and other supplies.

The United States and its ally Britain, who are seeking to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, were hoping to gain quick control of the south around Basra and nearby Umm Qasr, the country's only deep-water port.

But five days after the military campaign began, neither is fully in the hands of alliance forces and aid deliveries have yet to start.

Getting aid flowing is vital for the US-British alliance to underline their message that their fight is with Saddam, who the allies accuse of having banned weapons of mass destruction, and not with ordinary Iraqis.

In Moscow, a Kremlin spokesman said Putin told US President George W. Bush by telephone that there was a risk of a humanitarian crisis in Iraq, where people have been weakened by two previous wars in two decades and years of international sanctions.

"In an exchange of views on the Iraq crisis, the Russian side emphasised the humanitarian consequences of military action," the spokesman said, adding that Putin had "confirmed Russia's stated position on Iraq... and stressed the need to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe in the region".

Malnutrition already strikes 1.3 million Iraqi children under the age of five, or one in four, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

A United Nations run oil-for-food programme, under which Iraq is allowed to sell oil to buy food and other civilian supplies, is suspended and it is not yet known when it will resume.

Around 60 per cent of Iraq's 26 million people rely on the programme which was set up after economic sanctions were imposed on Iraq following its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

British International Development Secretary Clare Short said if it were not reinstated "it would be very difficult to avoid a serious humanitarian crisis".

Nevertheless, the World Food Programme, which distributed much of the supplies under the UN scheme, estimates Iraqi families have stockpiled enough for some six weeks.