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The European Union's top humanitarian aid official arrived in Baghdad Tuesday, one day before the first EU aid aircraft loaded with medical and hygiene supplies is due in Iraq since the outbreak of Iraq war.
"It is very important, and it is part of my objective of being here, to contribute to creating normalcy in how humanitarian aid is carried out," Poul Nielson, EU commissioner for development and humanitarian aid, told reporters at Baghdad airport.
"I would talk more about the United Nations and the coordinating role of the United Nations as being the cornerstone of how to do this in a normal fashion," said Nielson.
The top EU humanitarian aid official is expected to stay in the Iraqi capital for two days to assess the humanitarian situation in the war-battered country.
A Belgian air force cargo plane carrying tons of medical supplies from several relief agencies is set to arrive in Baghdad on Wednesday evening, said an EU official at the airport.
The aid is part of the relief supplies worth 100 million euros (US$113 million) that the European Union decided last month to provide to Iraq in 2003.
The European bloc said it had already allocated some 31 million euros (US$35 million) to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Iraq since the war began on March 20, and would distribute the money through the International Committee of the Red Cross, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), and aid agencies CARE and Premiere Urgence.
(Xinhua News Agency May 7, 2003)
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