Efforts to rebuild Iraq hampered

A lack of security and the absence of a functioning government are hampering efforts to rebuild Iraq, the UN warned, as it appealed for an additional $259m (€360m) to meet humanitarian needs through the end of 2003.

But the UN aid chiefs said yesterday that a large scale refugee crisis that had been feared before the war never happened and food rations – which 60% of Iraq’s 27 million depend on – have resumed nationwide.