The inter-agency "assessment mission is looking into the needs of up 30,000 displaced Iraqis encamped at Badrah and the security situation in that area of eastern Iraq," UNHCR spokesman in Amman Peter Kessler said in a statement.

He said aid officials, including UNHCR staff, planned to cross into Iraq on Sunday to examine the situation of the displaced in Badrah, 60 kilometersmiles) north of Al Kut.

"Depending on Sunday's assessment, a multi-agency transborder operation will be leaving Iran for Badrah in the following days to ensure that the displaced Iraqis have the necessary emergency assistance," the statement said.

Saturday's meeting was attended by representatives of UN agencies, including the children's agency UNICEF and the World Food Programme, as well as the International Organisation for Migration and the non-government organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres.

Representatives of the displaced met UNHCR staff Thursday at the Iranian border post of Mehran and were told the group fled had Baghdad and Nasiriya due to "chaos and lawlessness rampant in the area," the statement said.

They told the UNHCR they did not intend to cross into Iran but would stay in Badrah for the time being.

The UNHCR also reported that 65 Iraqis and third country nationals were stuck in "squalid conditions" at a transit camp in no man's land near Jordan's Al Karama border post with Iraq.

"The UNHCR has asked the government of Jordan to admit everyone stuck in the no man's land and to allow them to get the necessary humanitarian aid at the camps that have been established in (nearby) Ruweished," the statement said.

Some of the recent arrivals were sleeping in their cars, while others in a tent camp set by the UNHCR and the Jordanian Red Crescent but the "sanitation situation is rapidly deterioriating".

Jordan has stringent guidelines restricting the entry of Iraqis into its territory, and the UNHCR said only six Iraqi refugees have been admitted to the Ruweished camp in the last week.

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