GENEVA, February 16 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Major aid agencies and Iraq's neighbors have warned donor nations at a meeting in Geneva that a war against Baghdad could have a devastating impact on civilians, a Swiss government official said on Sunday, February 16.

"The crisis would be of tremendous proportions," Walter Fust, the Swiss government's development aid chief, told a news conference.

Fust was summarizing opinions expressed during a two-day closed-door meeting between experts from 29 governments and 21 aid agencies that ended on Sunday.

The worst-case scenario "would be a catastrophe never seen in any country over the past years and a number of actors would not be able to cope with such a situation", Fust said.

"The degree of civilian vulnerability is greater than in 1991 with the Gulf war."

The meeting was organized by the Swiss government to take stock of preparations that aid agencies are making to cope with the humanitarian disaster a new Gulf war could provoke.

Relief organizations have been preparing for several months by pre-positioning supplies and staff in the Gulf region.

The United States declined to take part in the Geneva meeting. "We are uncertain as to how the conference would assist the planning," a U.S. official said this week.

Meanwhile Iraq was not invited to avoid "politicizing" the gathering of mainly technical humanitarian experts.

The meeting discussed the current situation in Iraq, which is dependent on the UN's oil-for-food program, as well as fears of mass casualties and massive refugee movements in case of war.

On Thursday, February 13, the United Nations' chief UN emergency relief coordinator, Kenzo Oshima, said a "medium-case scenario" assumed war would leave 10 million of Iraq's 22 million people in need of immediate food aid and half the country without access to drinking water or sanitation.

The UN has estimated that two million Iraqis would be displaced inside the country and between 600,000 and 1.45 million refugees would seek asylum in neighboring countries.

‘Not Worth Living’

"According to polls, 40 percent of children (in Iraq) do not think life is worth living," Fust said, quoting data from humanitarian agencies.

"This is an indicator of what the crisis is already and where were are heading," he added.

Officials said neighboring countries, notably Jordan, warned of a repeat of the situation before and during the 1991 Gulf war, when thousands fled to their territory from Iraq but they were left without cash and help to cope with the influx, officials said.

Fust said the neighboring countries -- Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey -- had "made a strong commitment... to a policy of open borders" to facilitate relief efforts.

Fust said aid agencies had received many verbal pledges from donor countries but little in the way of actual payments to carry out their contingency planning.

"There are many (donor) countries that not only have to look at pledges to international (aid) organizations but also the needs of neighboring countries," he said.

The United Nations is likely to appeal next week for more funds to top up the estimated 120 million dollars it needs to cover relief preparations for Iraq, according to UN officials.

Apart from Iraq's neighbors, the other participants included the four permanent members of the Security Council other than the U.S. -- Britain, China, France and Russia -- as well as major donor nations Germany and Japan.

Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey told the participants on Saturday, February 15, that the meeting was organized "not because I believe war is inevitable, but because it is time that the world devoted its attention to the fate of civilian populations".

The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Jakob Kellenberger, said the plight of civilians was uppermost in the ICRC's mind.

"The ICRC hopes war can be avoided. So do the other components of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement," he told the meeting, which was held behind closed doors, as it opened on Saturday.

In a written copy of his remarks, Kellenberger said it would be essential to "at least mitigate human suffering".

"If war cannot be avoided, it is imperative that the future belligerents fully respect the provisions of international humanitarian law, such as the obligation to protect persons who do not or no longer participate in hostilities, to distinguish between civilians and combatants as well as between civilian objects and military objectives," he cautioned.

The BBC's online news service said that the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, which is chairing this gathering, says the tone of discussions will be highly practical and will focus on the logistics of providing help to Iraq in the event of any war.