A US Air Force C-130 Hercules landed in Kerman, near Bam, with a first delivery of US aid. The US military said it would ship in about 70 tonnes of supplies originally earmarked for reconstruction in Iraq.
US officials said that US airmen and Iranian soldiers worked together to unload the plane, the first US flight into Iran since the Iranian hostage crisis ended in 1981.
Washington severed ties with Iran after the US embassy was stormed in 1979 and 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days.
Iran's call to the world for help from anywhere but Israel contrasted with its rejection of assistance in 1990 when a quake killed 36,000 people.
Until Friday, the biggest earthquake death toll in the past decade was in India, where 19,700 people died in January, 2001.
Bam, a tourist attraction with an ancient citadel and other centuries-old buildings, has a history going back to the old Silk Road days when it was a stopover for merchants and travelers between China and Europe.
A large part of the citadel was destroyed by the quake.
RSS