Aid shipped to stricken port

Urgent shipments of British humanitarian aid are arriving in Iraq today, heralding the start of what is expected to be the biggest operation of its kind in history.

The Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Sir Galahad is expected to dock today with the first deliveries of water, food, medical supplies and other emergency relief, after the southern port of Umm Qasr was finally declared secure.

Much of the aid to feed Iraq's desperate population will be channelled from there.

There is mounting concern today about conditions faced by the 1.2 million people in Basra, where water and electricity supplies have been disconnected for the past five days. The World Health Organisation today warned of an outbreak of cholera there.

Umm Qasr came under the control of British troops yesterday after commandos from 42 Royal Marines carried out an overnight sweep around the port where diehard Iraqis had continued to hold out. Saddam Hussein's forces had left the 47-mile channel to Umm Qasr heavily mined.

Sir Galahad will deliver 192 tonnes of food and 92 tonnes of bottled water as well as blankets, plastic sheeting for shelter and medical packs.

Navigators and pilots from the 17 Port and Maritime Regiment will guide ships in, while others unload the vital cargo. Another British force, 102 Logistics Brigade, will take charge of getting the supplies to 12 distribution points throughout parts of Iraq under UK control.

The ship moved into position at the mouth of the Khawr Abd Allah river last night.

While under the control of the invading forces, Umm Qasr - like Basra - has been left without water supplies or electricity.

Residents say stocks of food are running low and the market is empty. The UN's World Food Programme announced that it will launch an appeal for £630 million to help feed the war-torn nation over the next six months.

The agency predicted it could be "the largest humanitarian operation in history".

But initially the onus will be on the US and Britain to get aid to the Iraqis. After a meeting with US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, UN secretary general Kofi Annan said the allies will have to provide humanitarian assistance to Iraq until security conditions improve.

International Development Secretary Clare Short announced that £30 million would go to the only aid workers on the ground in Iraq - the Red Cross and the Red Crescent.

The money is part of the £90 million that has been pledged to the UN and aid groups by the Department for International Development. The Treasury has also agreed to provide £30 million to the MoD for relief work by UK troops. UN officials pulled out of Iraq after the start of the war last week, and the agency estimates that Iraqis have about five weeks of food left.

A water engineer from the International Committee of the Red Cross has been working with local staff to install generators at the Wafa al Qaed water plant which supplies most of the water for Basra.

In Baghdad, work is also under way to send water supplies to hospitals in case the supply there is interrupted.

Before the war, the UN oilforfood programme was providing food, medicine and humanitarian aid to 60 per cent of Iraq's 22 million people - more than 13 million Iraqis - and Mr Annan says that programme should be revived as soon as possible.

A resolution to give the secretary general authority to run the programme for 45 days has yet to be agreed because Russia, Syria and others are insisting it must not give the US control over a UN account containing billions of dollars.