A United Nations official involved in deciding when full staff should return to Iraq said this morning it was hard to envision a return until security improved.
Mr Kevin Kennedy, chief of the Humanitarian EmergencyBranch of the Office for the Coordination of HumanitarianAffairs, 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 August 19th attack on the organisation's headquarters in Baghdad killed 22 staff and visitors, including the head of the operation, Mr Sergio Vieira de Mello.