"What we are seeing now is pockets of need, not a mass humanitarian crisis," said Michael Marx, a member of the Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) of USAID, at a press conference here.

The UN's World Food Program (WFP) said on March 31 it was seeking 1.3 billion dollars (1.2 billion euros) for a "massive food operation" to avoid a human catastrophe due to the war in Iraq, adding that most Iraqis would run out of food reserves by May.

"It is impossible to say how much time may pass before a major crisis," Marx told reporters at the US military's forward command center for the campaign against Iraq.

He said the efforts by agencies from the coalition -- notably Australia, Britain and the United States -- are the result of "four months of prudent contingency planning" to bring humanitarian aid to Iraqi civilians despite military operations.

Their priority is to create adequate work conditions for non-governmental aid agencies, notably by providing the right infrastructure and transport.

Marx added that security conditions were still bad, saying that DART had only so far sent a team to Iraq's southern port of Umm Qasr.

In the meantime, the military is to take charge of delivering needed humanitarian aid until conditions improve.

A ship carrying 100,000 tonnes of food supplies is to leave the United States Thursday, while 400,000 more tonnes are to follow, he said.

A representative of AusAID, Australia's official aid agency, said Canberra had set aside 100 million dollars (67 million euros) worth of aid for Iraq, notably by providing cereals to the WFP.

On Wednesday, officials in Sydney said an Australian aid ship carrying 100,000 tonnes of wheat had been diverted to Kuwait due to concerns about the safety of docking at Umm Qasr. The aid is to be delivered by road.

Britain opened the way to Umm Qasr with its Royal Fleet Auxiliary landing craft Sir Galahad, which docked there Friday with 800 tonnes of food, medicines and blankets.

British Major General Albert Whitley, overseeing humanitarian efforts in Iraq, also said Sunday that the humanitarian situation was not at crisis point, but warned that civilians were estimated to have less than two months of food and water.

SPACE.WIRE