TEHRAN, July 2 (IslamOnline & News agencies) - For the first time since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran accepted a plane-load of U.S. non-governmental

organization (NGO) aid Tuesday, but stressed the gesture had "no political character".

A U.S.-chartered cargo plane carrying 300,000 dollars worth of humanitarian U.S. government aid for the victims of last week's Iranian earthquake arrived in Tehran Tuesday, a UNICEF official said, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"The plane has arrived and airport workers have started to unload the material," Luc Chauvin of the United Nations Children Fund, which is charged with receiving the aid, told AFP.

However, Iranian official News Agency (IRNA) stressed the aid came from a U.S. NGO. A customs official at the Mehrabad International Airport said

that the aid consignment was first inspected and evaluated before

being handed to Iran's Red Crescent Society. He added that all the

plane's crew were from Uganda, according to IRNA.

The plane, a DC-10 belonging to the U.S.-registered DAS Air cargo company was originally due to arrive Monday but was delayed for "logistical reasons, not political ones," Soleiman Diallo, representative to Tehran of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) told AFP Monday.

"This case is purely humanitarian. Iran has traditionally accepted foreign aid following disasters, and this cannot be interpreted politically," an unnamed Iranian Interior Ministry official told AFP.

"We see in this event an encouraging sign for the future of Iranian-U.S. relations, which we want to see improve. But nobody can draw immediate conclusions," warned a Western diplomat, also unnamed by AFP.

In an apparent contradiction with what IRNA reported, Chauvin said the source of the assistance is the governmental United States Agency for International Development (USAID), but there would be no U.S. nationals aboard the plane.

Chauvin, said: "The U.S.-registered commercial civilian cargo plane... has no U.S. markings because of the sensitivity of the issue.

"UNICEF has been charged with delivering $300,000 worth of aid and the crew of the plane are Ugandan. There is no American on board," reported BBC’s online news service.

The assistance includes six 10,000-liter water tankers, two water

treatment systems, which will supply 10,000 people with drinking

water, 5,000 woolen blankets and 12,000 personal health kits, IRNA reported.

The aid like other international assistance will be offered to the quake victims by the UNICEF.

Iran, which has no diplomatic ties with Washington since the 1979 Islamic revolution, last week accepted humanitarian aid from all countries, including the United States, so long as no political strings were attached.

The June 22 earthquake which struck the northwestern Qazvin province registered 6.3 on the Richter scale and left 235 dead, according to latest casualty figures from the Iranian Interior Ministry.

Another 1,300 were injured and at least 12,000 left homeless after 9,500 houses and public buildings were leveled.

Iran's acceptance of the U.S. aid comes after President George W. Bush in January charged that Iran forms part of an "axis of evil", along with Iraq and North Korea. In May, a U.S. State Department report branded Iran the biggest state sponsor of terrorism.

In his offer of aid, Bush pointedly avoided referring to the Iranian government, saying, "I extend my condolences and those of the American people to the families of the many victims in the cities and villages affected by this tragic event.

"Human suffering knows no political boundaries. We stand ready to assist the people of Iran as needed and as desired," he said.