The government would hand 10 million baht (about US$238,095) to the Thai Red Cross Society as soon as possible to buy medicines and first aid kits for the Iraqi people, said the foreign spokesman Sihasak Phuanggethkeow.

But it was the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees that would decide the size of the medical team and when and how it would be sent to Iraq, said Sihasak, adding that the aid had been approved by the Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Wednesday.

The Thai government has called for a peaceful resolution of Iraq crisis and a swift end of the United States-led war.

Since the US launched the war against Iraq, the Thai people have organized repeated protests and wish it will end soon.

(Xinhua News Agency March 28, 2003)