Many hands grabbed for the relief packages

Food, water and other aid supplies are being distributed to civilians in the southern town of Safwan, after seven lorries crossed into Iraq by road from Kuwait City on Wednesday, escorted by US troops.

Sandstorms forced aid workers to reduce the size of the convoy, which was originally scheduled to have 30 vehicles.

Another convoy carrying 10 tons of medical equipment supplied by the aid organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres headed for Baghdad from Amman, Jordan, on Wednesday.

A British ship, Sir Galahad, is expected to arrive in the southern port of Umm Qasr with nearly 200 tons of food and more than 90 tons of bottled water.

People in Umm Qasr have been speaking about the food shortages in the city since the war began.

"We have had nothing for five days, absoutely nothing," one resident said.

"The war broke out and there is nothing ( in terms of food supply) tangiable from the Americans."

War and sanctions have left many Iraqis desperate Pictures of Iraq aid effort

As many as 60% of Iraq's 27 million people were entirely dependent on aid for survival even before the war broke out, the World Food Programme says.

The UN agency estimates that Iraqis have about five weeks' supply of food left.

The southern Iraqi city of Basra - the country's second largest - has suffered an electricity blackout and is without a reliable supply of safe drinking water, aid agencies say.

A WFP spokesman announced on Tuesday that the agency would appeal for $1bn to help feed the country for six months.

The spokesman, Trevor Rowe, said the project could be "the largest humanitarian operation in history", Britain's Press Association reported.

US responsibility

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Tuesday that the United States and its allies would have to provide humanitarian assistance to Iraq until security conditions improve there. He was speaking after meeting US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice to discuss assistance for Iraq.

The Security Council is due to hold an open meeting on Wednesday at the request of the Arab group and the Non-Aligned Movement.

The Council has now shifted its focus to ways of helping Iraqi civilians, but - after an acrimonious split over the attack on Iraq - even the humanitarian mission is proving divisive.

Ms Rice held more than an hour of talks with Mr Annan about the humanitarian situation.

A statement by the secretary-general afterwards warned that the UN could only give limited help until its staff was able to return to Iraq.

Until then, he said, humanitarian aid would have to be provided by the US and its coalition partners.

One of the most pressing issues is the future of the oil-for-food programme - previously partly administered by the Iraqi Government - which fed much of the population.

The Security Council has failed to agree on the scope of a draft resolution needed to hand control of the programme to the secretary-general.

There is also likely to be disagreement among Security Council members about the role of the UN in administering a post-war Iraq.

Opponents of the war - including France, Russia and China - do not want resolutions on humanitarian aid to appear to authorise the war retroactively.

They are also determined that Washington should not be put in charge of the oil-for-food programme.