The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warned on Tuesday that the humanitarian situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate with the number of displaced Iraqis, both inside and outside the country, still rising.

The total number of uprooted Iraqis currently stands at about 4.2 million and the monthly rate of displacement has climbed to more than 60,000 compared to 50,000 previously, UNHCR spokeswoman Jennifer Pagonis told reporters in Geneva.

"Displacement is rising as Iraqis are finding it harder to get access to social services inside Iraq and many Iraqis are choosing to leave ethnically mixed areas before they are forced to do so," Pagonis said.

"Some Iraqis who stayed in the country until the end of the school year recently started leaving the country with their families," she added.

Syria, which has generously kept its borders open to fleeing Iraqis, estimates that more than 1.4 million Iraqis are now in the country, while Jordan estimates that some 500,000-750,000 Iraqis are in its territory, UNHCR said.

The number of Iraqi asylum seekers in Europe in the first half of this year rose to nearly 20,000.

Since the start of this year, the UNHCR has referred more than 13,200 of the most vulnerable Iraqi cases to resettlement countries, Pagonis said, adding that so far only several hundred cases have left for life in a third country.

"We urge the resettlement countries to make rapid decisions and facilitate the departure of those most in need, many of whom are urgent medical cases, single female-headed households, torture victims and others."

The UNHCR aims to provide up to 20,000 Iraqi resettlement cases to governments this year.

(Xinhua News Agency August 29, 2007)