Aid convoys were rolling food and other supplies from Turkey through Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Iraq but deliveries in other parts of the country were still being held up by security fears.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said only three of the 10 hospitals it had surveyed in the capital, Baghdad, were working properly.

The remaining hospitals were suffering or out of action because they had been stripped of equipment by looters, or because medical staff and patients were unable to remain there safely, especially in eastern and northern neighbourhoods, the ICRC said.

"We cannot say the situation is under control on the humanitarian side," ICRC spokeswoman Nada Doumani told journalists in Geneva.

"There is still a lot to do, especially in the Iraqi capital where the security question is still a priority."

The ICRC reiterated that US and British forces had a duty to ensure the basic needs of the population under the Geneva Conventions on the rules of war.

"The basic needs of the population means food, water, medical care, to the fullest extent possible," Doumani said.

"Some measures were taken by US forces following appeals. Some hospitals have been secured, others still haven't," she added.

The ICRC later reported that security was improving slightly in Baghdad. Police cars were patrolling the streets and many Iraqis working for the ICRC were able to return to work for the first time in days, it noted.

Doumani said security had also improved slightly in Iraq's second city, Basra, which is under the control of British troops.

"I think British forces have been ensuring the security of essential facilities," she said.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said there were "mixed reports" about security across Iraq, despite guards being mounted at some hospitals.

"We do have reports of several key hospitals, particularly in Baghdad, that are being protected but no comprehensive system for protecting the entire health system," WHO spokesman Iain Simpson said.

"Making sure people can go safely to work and that they can get the drugs and the other medical equipment they need is absolutely vital," he added.

The ICRC said delivering water to the population was the second most important task, especially in the south and in Baghdad.

Supplies were being restored to about 50 or 60 percent of the capital's five million inhabitants, it said.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said it would start on Tuesday to deliver water and supplies from Iran for the first time in the southern Iraqi peninsula of Al-Faw.

It said it intended to expand deliveries from Iran further north by using stocks built up before the US-British invasion in case of a mass exodus of Iraqi refugees.

But the aid agencies said they were still waiting for the United Nations to give them security clearance before they could get a full aid operation underway across southern Iraq and in Baghdad.

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF said they were again mobilising community networks in Iraq which had been helping with aid deliveries inside the country before the invasion.

WFP said many of the 44,000 Iraqis who helped food distribution under the UN's oil-for-food programme were ready to get back to work.

"We have more and more contact with our employees in the field who are evaluating the situation so that we can resume public distribution (of food) during the month of May," WFP spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume said.

A convoy of 146 trucks carring 3,000 tonnes of food was due to cross the border from Turkey heading for the northern Iraqi cities of Arbil and Sulaymaniya on Wednesday or Thursday.

About 500 trucks carrying 10,000 tonnes of food will have rolled into northern Iraq by the end of the week, according to WFP.

Aid agencies were preparing for more convoys from Jordan, Iran, Turkey and Kuwait this week "if all goes well", Berthiaume said.

SPACE.WIRE