But he said funds from the newly-reconstituted UN oil-for-food programme would be insufficient to cover the bulk of Iraq's immediate humanitarian needs, warning the poorest Iraqis could run out of food late this month.

A UN Security Council resolution adopted Friday gave Secretary General Kofi Annan control for 45 days over the humanitarian side of the UN programme that uses Iraq's oil revenues for food and medical supplies.

Now, the Rome-based WFP says it is working against the clock to review food contracts already approved by the UN programme to see which could be delivered to Iraq ahead of the May 12 deadline.

"It's still unclear how much of the outstanding oil-for-food contracts will be available in time. In any case, they will not cover the bulk of our immediate needs," said Morris.

"The onus will remain on individual donors to help fund an operation which could evolve into the largest in the history of humanitarian aid."

He paid tribute to the United States, who contributed 260 million dollars Wednesday, and other major donors for their early contributions to the appeal.

Major contributions included 100,000 tonnes of wheat from Australia, 6.4 million dollars from Germany, 4.2 million dollars from Canada, 1.6 million dollars from Spain, and 565,000 dollars from New Zealand.

"This is the best possible start to the biggest single appeal in WFP's 40-year history," said Morris. "We are extremely grateful for these nations' generosity."

"We still have a long way to go and we cannot affort to lose time. We believe the poorest Iraqis will start to run out of food by the end of April," he added.

An estimated 60 percent of 16 million of the Iraqi population is totally dependent on monthly food rations for survival.

WFP is aiming to deliver a 480,000 tonnes of food aid each month as part of its six month emergency programme to feed up to feed up to 27 million people.

The agency said that as part of the first phase of its emergency operation, it was pre-positioning 30,000 tonnes of food in Iraq's neighbouring countries, which would be used to feed a potential flood of two million refugees from the US-led war.

Internally displaced people could be reached by cross-border relief aid from those neighbouring countries, WFP said.

SPACE.WIRE