British victim had been in Iraq one day

The British woman killed in the bomb blast at the United Nations in Baghdad only arrived in Iraq the day before the attack, it was revealed this afternoon.

Fiona Watson, 35, an experienced aid worker, was among 20 victims confirmed dead today. Her father Andrew wept as he said: "I can't believe she's gone." Miss Watson, a political analyst from the fishing village of Pittenweem in Fife, joined the UN four years ago and had been to many of the world's war zones. Her brother Hamish said: "It's dreadful news... a truly terrible thing."

Miss Watson worked in the same first-floor office as Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN's special representative in Iraq, who also died. After an allnight effort to find survivors, the rescue operation appeared to have turned into a search for the bodies of the many people unaccounted for.

FBI investigators and US forensic teams scoured the rubble for clues. Many of the victims were crushed under tons of rubble when a massive lorry bomb exploded outside the UN building yesterday. The blast created a six-foot-deep crater

and shredded the facade of the Canal Hotel where the UN was based. More than 100 people were injured, many seriously.

The three-storey building was the base for 300 UN staff in Baghdad, out of a total of 646 UN personnel in Iraq. There had been minimal security around the building to avoid antagonising Iraqis.

Ahmad Chalabi, a member of Iraq's Governing Council, this afternoon confirmed the death toll of 20 but said many more bodies were thought to be trapped under the wreckage.

Mr Chalabi said a three-day period of mourning had been declared.

He blamed supporters of Saddam Hussein for the outrage, adding: "We have no doubt that those who carried out this terrorist act are the remnants of the regime."

Reports of a mass evacuation of the UN's foreign staff from Baghdad were played down today.

UN spokesman Salim Lone said no decision had been made but a meeting would be held later. Mr Lone said the injured and those due for a break would be flown to Jordan.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the UN would not pull out of Iraq. "We will persevere. We will continue. It is essential work," he said today, adding: "We will not be intimidated."

Mr Annan said he was meeting the Security Council later to discuss security arrangements for UN workers in Iraq. The attack stunned the UN, which had long been welcomed by Iraqis, even by many who protested against the presence of the US-led occupation forces. Mr de Mello, 55, a Brazilian, had been with the UN for more than 30 years. Tributes from around the world today described a man who had put Cambodia on the path to multi-party rule and steered East Timor to independence.

He had also worked in Bosnia and Africa and had been tipped as a future Secretary-General. Foreign Secretary