The spokeswoman, Antonella Notari, also said the capital's Medical City hospital complex was partly under the control of US forces.

"These are very concrete, very useful measures, but the entire infrastructure serving the civilian population also has to be secured," she told AFP.

The ICRC on Friday urged the occupying US and British forces to re-establish order in the areas under their control, as looters went on the rampage after Saddam Hussein's authority crumbled, hampering aid and medical efforts.

Notari said the reigning "chaos had created huge difficulties in hospital services and a threat to installations including those providing water."

Calling it a "very positive" development, she said Iraqi water and hygiene authorities had held a meeting late Friday with the US forces' Civil Affairs Unit at the ICRC offices in Baghdad.

"Immediately after the meeting, urgent steps were taken to secure Baghdad's large water supply station, which was under threat from a band of armed looters.

"The coalition forces managed to prevent them from attacking," she said.

The Medical City complex, which stayed partly operational while other hospitals were ransacked by looters and forced to shut down, has now also been partly "secured" by US forces, Notari said.

The four-hospital complex, which has thousands of beds, has been deprived of clean water and was relying on a few back-up generators for partial electricity supply.

Medical City "has already suffered considerable damage from looting on Thursday and Friday. It will need emergency repairs, new equipment and a new system for transporting patients," Notari said.

In the southern city of Basra, Notari said the situation was less chaotic, thanks in part to steps taken by British forces, the population itself and initiatives by local imams.

The ICRC team visited several hospitals in Basra which appeared to be working, although water supply remained the greatest concern for the city, after looters pulled up water pipes.

SPACE.WIRE