But the world body has delayed issuing the appeal until next week after initially planning to call on international donors to contribute as early as Friday, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Officials earlier had said the appeal by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs could total as much as US$1.7 billion -- including US$1.3 billion for food aid alone.

But the appeal -- intended to head off a feared humanitarian catastrophe as a US-led invasion unrolled in Iraq -- was now being scaled back and would not be issued before the middle of next week, the officials said.

The Rome-based World Food Program, which runs UN emergency food programs, "is looking at something in the area of a billion dollars for food assistance over six months," WFP spokesman Jordan Dey said in New York.

The World Food Program said it continues to operate in Iraq with some 800 Iraqi staff even after the start of fighting, although all UN international staffers were pulled out of the country earlier this week.

The Iraqi government said before the fighting began that it had distributed enough food to meet Iraqis' needs through August, under the UN oil-for-food program, which since 1996 has allowed Iraq to sell oil and use the proceeds to buy food, medicine and other civilian goods under UN supervision.

But UN officials warned the situation could quickly deteriorate if the fighting caused significant damage or drove large numbers of people from their homes, particularly if they were driven into neighboring countries where the oil-for-food program does not reach.

Iraq is particularly susceptible to a food crisis as more than 60 percent of Iraq's 26 million people rely solely on the oil-for-food program's monthly food basket to meet their household needs, according to UN estimates.

(China Daily March 21, 2003)