The ICRC, which has more than 100 staff on the ground including 14 expatriate workers spread between Baghdad, Basra and Arbil is deeply concerned about the fate of Iraqi civilians, spokeswoman Antonella Notari said.

As Baghdad continues to face nightly bombardments by coalition forces the priority for ICRC staff in the capital is to get out into the city's hospitals to evaluate the medical needs on the ground, she said.

"They visit hospitals every day during the quiet times, notably those that have surgery facilities for the war injured," she told reporters.

Hospitals have received equipment and basic medicines, as well as generators, in some cases, to ensure they can continue surgical operations in the event of power cuts.

"For the time being the situation in the supply of water is under control" in Baghdad, Notari said.

Water, on the other hand, is the "big priority" in Iraq's second city of Basra in the south of the country.

Having already managed to get drinking water supplies resumed to about half the people who rely on the region's main water pumping station, ICRC teams are now trying to boost its capacity for the rest of the two million users.

The medical team in Basra has been reinforced in recent days, and after visits to three hospitals, Notari said the hospitals were managing to cope.

"Medical staff and stocks that we put in place before the start of the conflict have enabled the situation to be dealt with," Notari said.

Around the northern city of Arbil, ICRC helped about 1,000 people who had fled from Kirkuk and Mosul several seeks ago and unlike most of the displaced were unable to find shelter with family and friends.

"There is a continued dialogue with the authorities on both sides, the military commanders," Notari told reporters.

"We reserve the right to discuss with them what seems necessary to us in terms of the protection of the civilian population," she added, stressing the talks remained confidential.

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) believes that the Iraqi people have enough food to see them through until the end of April, spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume said on Tuesday.

WFP hopes to return to Iraq to reactivate a food distribution system, already in place under the UN's oil-for-food programme, and comprising about 50,000 distribution points.

"We think that it is feasible provided we have security and the necessary resources," Berthiaume told reporters.

The Rome-based UN agency has received 115 million dollars so far out of the 1.3 billion it appealed for on Friday.

WFP is currently looking into the possibility of the setting up of humanitarian corridors to help bring in the planned 480,000 tonnes of food a month, she said.

"The fate of civilians, their health and their safety, deeply concerns us," Notari of the ICRC said.

"It is the responsibility of the belligerents to ensure the security and health of civilians so that they are not cut off from vital supplies and that they are not attacked," Notari added.

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