A shipment of food supplies left the Kuwaiti port of Al-Shuwaikh for the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr on the northern tip of the Arabian Gulf, Ali al-Mumen, chief of the Humanitarian Aid Center (HAC), said in a statement.

The aid is expected to arrive in the southern Iraqi port city in the coming few hours, the statement said, adding Kuwait would continue securing a 10-million-dollar aid for the Iraqis.

More shipments would be dispatched in the coming days, it said, adding the Kuwaiti government and people are keen on offering aid to the Iraqi people who are facing difficult circumstances.

According to a decision by the Kuwait Council of Ministers, the HAC has been set up recently to secure a direct aid to the Iraqi people.

Kuwait claims that the port city of Umm Qasr is divided into two parts, with the northern part inside Iraq and the southern one in Kuwait.

Kuwait, which had been freed from a seven-month Iraqi occupation in the 1991 Gulf War, is hosting at least 140,000 US and British troops.

Despite mounting international opposition, the United States launched its war against Iraq at 0530 a.m. (0230 GMT) last Thursday, in a bid to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The offensives, the first preemptive strikes in the US history, kicked off about 90 minutes after the expiration of an ultimatum issued by US President George W. Bush for Saddam to leave the country or face war.

The United States has accused Iraq of hiding and secretly developing banned weapons as well as having linkage with the al-Qaeda terror network. Iraq strongly denies the US allegation.

(Xinhua News Agency March 25, 2003)