U.N. staff enter northern Iraq for first time

Their return had been delayed for more than a week after the U.S. military said they could not guarantee their safety.

International officers pulled out of Iraq more than a month ago ahead of the war.

Local aid workers have been transporting and distributing U.N. humanitarian assistance.

"The return of this first wave of international staff paves the way for all staff to eventually return and resume previous functions in northern Iraq," a U.N. official in Ankara said.

"A senior mission should follow in the second wave."

Another 700 international U.N. staff, who withdrew ahead of the war, are on standby to redeploy. They are to join 3,400 Iraqis still employed by the world body once security allows.

The war disrupted food supply in Iraq, where 60 percent of the population were dependant on the U.N.’s oil-for-food programme to meet their nutritional needs.

A growing number of aid convoys, from the United Nations and other agencies, are now crossing into Iraq from Jordan, carrying tonnes of food and medical equipment.

The WFP said on Wednesday it had sent more than 38,000 tonnes of food to the Kurdish-run north from Turkey since resuming assistance earlier this month.

On Monday the WFP began trucking hundreds of tonnes of food from southeastern Turkey to Kirkuk in northern Iraq, where looters destroyed warehouse stocks after the city fell to U.S.-backed Kurdish forces.

Also on Monday a small WFP convoy from Iran arrived in the Kurdish-run city of Sulaymaniyah.

Fifty trucks from Jordan reached Baghdad on Sunday, but the trip took four days instead of the expected two because of security conditions, a WFP spokeswoman said.