Aid agencies said on Wednesday that the first trickle of aid had arrived in war-ravaged Iraq, but warned that a few tonnes of supplies were not enough to combat the country's looming disaster.
With the vital deep water port of Umm Qasr still not cleared for the British relief ship Sir Galahad, American soldiers brought aid trucks over the border from Kuwait, while in the north, a Medecins Sans Frontieres convoy with 10 tonnes of medical supplies was reported to be travelling towards Baghdad from Jordan.
The UN said on Tuesday that feeding Iraq's 24 million people, most of whom depend on government rations, will require its largest ever humanitarian effort.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan reiterated his warning to coalition forces Wednesday that while the conflict continues they are responsible for the welfare of Iraqis.
"I would want to remind all belligerents that they should respect international humanitarian law and take all necessary steps to protect civilians. Besides, they are responsible for the welfare of the civilian population in the area," he said.
As Russia became the latest Security Council member to express concern at the humanitarian situation, the WHO said that the situation in the southern city of Basra was critical.
Most of the 1.7 million people had been short of water for days.
Red Crescent technicians are reported to have restored access to the main treatment plant in Basra, but a WHO spokesman, Iain Simpson, said the water shortages were likely to lead to outbreaks of disease -- especially among children and old people.
"You have a population which is already weakened by lack of food, particularly the children, together with an infrastructure which was weakened by the last Gulf war. You put those two things together and you start to have a situation where there will almost inevitably be outbreaks of disease," he said.
US President George W. Bush promised at the weekend that aid supplies would begin arriving within a day and a half.
But setbacks for the allied troops and the slow process of sweeping mines from Umm Qasr's port have held up the promised supplies.
With pressure mounting on the coalition forces to deliver a massive humanitarian effort, the White House blamed Iraq's decision to mine the port for the delays.
Aid agencies fear the security situation may prevent them moving in their own supplies for up to two weeks more. Iraqi guerrilla tactics mean that it may be unsafe for the agencies to follow the military in as they had hoped.
"If you look at the way they are fighting in Basra, people taking off their uniforms, it is going to be house to house," said Alistair Dutton, from the UK aid agency Cafod.
"They are just going to be picking them off one by one and we are not going in while there are even two guns in the city because it would not be deemed safe enough for any ordinary aid agency."
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said it had warned the US and Iraqi authorities before sending the convoy of trucks over the border from Jordan before dawn Wednesday. The supplies, which include surgical kits, generators and water, are the first which MSF has managed to get into Iraq since before the bombing started last week.
"We took all the precautions we could to limit that security constraint," said Catrin Schulte-Hillen of MSF. "It will be important to keep the supply line to Baghdad open because we don't know how this situation will develop."
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