A displaced Iraqi stands in front of her home at a refugee camp in northern Iraq

LONDON, January 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A military strike against Iraq could turn into a humanitarian nightmare, human rights group Amnesty International said on Sunday, January 26.

"Military action could easily precipitate a huge disaster," said Irene Khan, secretary general of the London-based rights group, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

"As in 1991, there might be a million refugees again and a humanitarian nightmare if Iran and Turkey keep their borders closed, as they have vowed they will," she said.

Khan's comments came after U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told the World Economic Forum in Switzerland that the situation in Iraq "cannot be allowed to continue" and that the United States "would not shy away from war."

"Knowing the way Saddam treats his people when he is cornered, it's very possible there could be an internal bloodbath," Khan said. "This is not just conjecture -- it has happened before and it could happen again."

Military action against Iraq could have "a ripple effect elsewhere, (including) an escalation of the Middle East conflict and protests and violence in other Muslim countries, threatening many lives," Khan said.

On Monday, UN disarmament chiefs are due to present a crucial report to the UN Security Council on the status of weapons inspections in Iraq.

The United States could use a negative report as a pretext to launch a military strike against Baghdad.

Iran prepares for 200,000 refugees from Iraq

Meanwhile in Tehran, Iran has revised the number of refugee camps it intends to set up in case of a U.S.-led attack against Iraq to 10, with a total capacity of 200,000 people, an interior ministry official said Sunday.

Last month Iran said it was setting up 19 camps along the border.

"Our policy is the complete closure of borders with Iraq ... but if the lives of Iraqis are really in danger, we have plans to set up 10 camps for 20,000 people each" on the border between the two countries, Ahmad Hosseini said at a press conference.

"These camps will be set up along the southern part of the border," where the risk of an influx of refugees is higher, added Husseini, head of the ministry's Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrants (BAFIA).

"In case of an American attack against Iraq, we think there will be mostly people displaced within the country and that few refugees will head towards our borders," he said.

Hosseini said Iran had not allocated a budget to help potential refugees but "was ready to facilitate the work of humanitarian organizations and transit international aid across the Iranian border to displaced Iraqis and refugees."

He said the Islamic Republic was holding talks with Iraqi officials to help them set up refugee camps within Iraq.

"We proposed to send missions to the western and southern regions of Iraq to single out areas to install refugee camps that will be run by Iraqis themselves."

As for Iran playing host to exiled Iraqi officials, Hosseini said this could only be decided by the foreign ministry.

The British relief agency Oxfam on Friday gave a much larger figure for the number of refugees Iran may have to host in case of a war, saying this could be up to 900,000.

Noting Iran already hosts more than two million refugees from Afghanistan, and another 450,000 Iraqis, the Oxfam report said "the Iranian government will need full international assistance to cope with a further humanitarian crisis."

In May and June 1991 during the last Gulf War, around one million Iraqis -- mainly Kurds from the north and Shiites from the south -- fled to Iran. Some 200,000 are still there.

The Afghan refugees arrived following the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.