Full UN return to Iraq still uncertain

"It is hard to envision we would be able to carry out the full range of activities we would like to do ... until security improves," Kevin Kennedy, chief of the Humanitarian Emergency Branch of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told Reuters.

Kennedy and other top UN officials were meeting in Cyprus to make a recommendation to Secretary General Kofi Annan on the return of staff to Iraq. Most staff were pulled out after an Aug. 19 attack on the organisation's headquarters in Baghdad killed 22 staff and visitors, including the head of the operation, Sergio Vieira de Mello.

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Kennedy said the discussions would end at the weekend when a recommendation would be made to Annan.

"The security situation is not uniform throughout the country and there are parts where we can work -- more safe and secure than other parts," Kennedy said.

"It is not a uniform picture and we'll adjust operations region by region."

Annan has put two security officials on leave after an independent panel issued a scathing report on safety precautions before the August bombing of the UN offices in Baghdad.

After the August attack, Annan drastically reduced staff in Iraq and earlier this month withdrew the last 20 from Baghdad after a week of violence including the bombing of the Baghdad headquarters of the International Committee for the Red Cross.

About 40 or so foreign staff remain in northern Iraq where it is safer. Some 4,000 Iraqi staff are still on the UN payroll throughout Iraq.

Asked if it was unlikely there would be a full return of staff, Kennedy replied: "I wouldn't say it's unlikely and there are a variety of ways to go back -- longer term, shorter term or visits. We hope to be back as soon as we possibly can."

AFP adds: A UN report warns that international efforts to seal off financial resources to al-Qaeda are being seriously hampered by inadequate cooperation, legislative loopholes and a lack of political determination, London's Financial Times newspaper said yesterday.

"Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and those associated with the network are still able to obtain, solicit, collect, transfer and distribute considerable sums," the report says, according to The Financial Times.

"Without a more comprehensive resolution -- which obliges states to take the mandated measures -- the role played by the United Nations risks becoming marginalised," the report says, according to the same source.

The report highlights the activities of Youssef Nada and Idris Nasredin, directors of al-Taqwa, a financial group Washington believes was the most important fundraising operation for al-Qaeda.