agency Oxfam said in a report released Monday.

A "humanitarian crisis" is unfolding in Iraq where a third of the population is in need of immediate emergency aid, the British aid agency Oxfam said in a report released Monday.

The report, drawn up together with Iraqi non-government organizations, said the Iraqi government was failing to provide basic essentials such as water, sanitation, food, and shelter for up to 8 million people.

It warned the continuing violence was masking a humanitarian crisis that had grown worse since the invasion in 2003.

Four million Iraqis had been uprooted, the report said: more than 2 million people had been displaced inside the country, while a further 2 million had fled to neighbouring countries.

The survey recognized that armed conflict was the greatest problem facing Iraqis, but finds a population "increasingly threatened by disease and malnutrition".

It suggested that 70 per cent of Iraq's population of 26.5 million were without adequate water supplies, compared to 50 per cent before the invasion. Only 20 per cent had access to effective sanitation.

Nearly 30 per cent of children are malnourished, a sharp increase on the situation four years ago. Some 15 per cent of Iraqis regularly cannot afford to eat.

"Basic services, ruined by years of war and sanctions, cannot meet the needs of the Iraqi people," the director of Oxfam International, Jeremy Hobbs, said.

"Millions of Iraqis have been forced, either to another part of Iraq or abroad. Many of those are living in dire poverty," he said.

"The Iraqi government must commit to helping Iraq's poorest citizens, including the internally displaced, by extending food parcel distribution and cash payments to the vulnerable," he said.

"Western donors must work through Iraqi and international aid organizations and develop more flexible systems to ensure these organizations operate effectively and efficiently."

AMSI Net- DPA