The HMS Sir Galahad, carrying some 500 tonnes of food and clothing, was due to be unloaded at Umm Qasr, the only port for large vessels, but British Major Jeff Cox said that the waters were still unsafe.

"It has been held up for 24 hours because of mines in the port," Cox told

Dozens of locals had gathered with tin containers to fill up with water outside the compound here in the southern tip of Iraq from where the supplies were to be distributed.

Another British officer, who declined to be identified, warned that it could take until Saturday for the supplies to be distributed even if the ship docks as planned on Friday.

The coalition is looking to use Umm Qasr as the main entry point to supply aid around the whole of southern Iraq.

The officer said that locals who had initially been wary about the coalition were now welcoming their presence.

"The people are smiling when we turn up now," he said. "They are not as much in your face (but) they are still very cagey. It's a hard job; people are worried that Saddam Hussein will come back."

But a local doctor who was helping the coalition plan the distribution effort underlined that the locals' acceptance of aid supplies had not necessarily bought their allegiance.

"We still have one leader and one country," he told AFP.

The officer added that British engineers were building a pipeline to bring water from over the border in Kuwait.

But he said that even if the Sir Galahad, which is carrying one million liters (220,000 gallons) of water, arrives on Friday, it would take another day to distribute the supplies.

And he added that local tanker drivers who had been hired to distribute the water wanted to sell it on even though it was being delivered for free.

A top US aid official told a congressional panel Wednesday that a critical shortage of food and clean water in Iraq means that Washington likely will have to provide almost immediate humanitarian relief to the region.

Wendy Chamberlin, who heads up US aid efforts to Asia and the Middle East for the US Agency for International Development, said in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the humanitarian aid likely would have to be provided directly by the US armed forces -- and probably well before the end of the current US-led military conflict in Iraq.

"My assessment (is) that the Iraqi people have one month of food supplies," Chamberlin said.

Of even more immediate concern is a lack of potable water, she said.

"Water is the issue," said Chamberlin.

Iraqis, who already suffered from malnutrition, lack of medical care and a deficient infrastructural system, now face dire food and medicine shortages because of disruptions in aid caused by the war, US aid officials say.

A convoy of military vehicles packed with aid arrived in Umm Qasr on Wednesday while three trucks of food and water from the Kuwaiti Red Crescent Society delivered supplies in the border town of Safwan amid chaotic scenes.

Coalition forces secured complete control of Umm Qasr earlier this week after encountering persistent Iraqi resistance, but they are still trawling for mines in the channel.

Attempts to deliver aid to the main southern city of Basra have so far been delayed by fighting which has severely disrupted water supplies.

WAR.WIRE