In a statement from its Geneva headquarters, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said a Canadian aid worker was missing and feared seriously injured after his car was either attacked or caught in crossfire on Tuesday.

A spokesman in Jordan said the ICRC -- one of the only international organisations working in the Iraqi capital -- was suspending its activities temporarily in Baghdad amid fighting there.

"The precarious and dangerous situation and the chaos which reigns in Baghdad obliges the ICRC, with regret, to suspend its activities temporarily in the city," ICRC spokesman Moin Kassis said.

"We regret we cannot give help to those who need it in these circumstances," he added, although officials insisted they were waiting for "unpredictable" security conditions to improve.

"The important thing to stress at the moment is that there is absolutely no question of withdrawing," spokesman Florian Westphal told AFP in Geneva.

The Canadian staffer, Vatche Arslanian, was missing and feared seriously injured after two vehicles clearly marked with the red cross were either attacked or caught in crossfire, the ICRC said in Geneva.

Westphal said there was still no news on Arslanian's whereabouts or condition.

Two other staff members who had been ferrying Red Cross workers around in the cars managed to escape and raise the alarm.

But fellow aid workers, who returned to the area to try to rescue the 48 year-old Canadian logistics expert, were forced to turn back because of the fighting.

Foreign and local staff had been unable to move around Baghdad since early Wednesday and would be taking "incalculable risks" if they tried to leave their offices, according to the ICRC.

"The ICRC is deeply distressed by its inability to rescue its staff member and by its temporary inability to pursue its emergency assistance for those in need," it added.

"The ICRC team has not left Baghdad and is still in our premises there. We will assess the situation and resume our activities as soon as possible," Kassis explained.

The exact circumstances of the incident in the east of Baghdad on Tuesday were not known.

"It has been impossible to establish whether the ICRC team was caught in a crossfire or came under direct attack," the statement said.

"The two vehicles were clearly marked with large red crosses visible from a distance," it added.

Arslanian has been in Iraq since July 2001 and was one of the aid workers delivering supplies to hospitals and water treatment plants.

The ICRC warned on Tuesday that hospitals in Baghdad were being overwhelmed by the number of casualties they had to treat since fighting between US and Iraqi forces hit the city's streets.

Ten foreign workers and about 100 Iraqis work for the aid agency in Iraq.

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