PARIS, April 10 (Islamonline.net & News Agencies) - French aid agencies have teams in Baghdad and convoys waiting at the borders for the go-ahead to move into Iraq, but are refusing to take orders from U.S. and British troops.

All the major French aid agencies have refused to be placed under the direct responsibility of the centre for humanitarian operations set up by Washington to coordinate the distribution of vital relief aid to Iraqi civilians, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP) Thursday, April 10.

They have also refused to be "embedded" with U.S. and British troops, alongside reporters covering the war and are insisting on conducting operations with strict impartiality.

"Humanitarian aid cannot be viewed as a weapon for achieving military goals," five France-based aid agencies said in a joint statement.

"It is not the after-sales service for the war," said the statement signed by Action contre la Faim (ACF or Action against Hunger).

ACF, which has staff and supplies waiting at the Iraqi border, insisted aid deliveries had to be kept completely separate from military operations.

"If the military are there to provide security, they'll be fulfilling their role. But if they tell us who to give aid to, when and how, then there is no question of us working with them," an ACF official told AFP.

Several aid agencies operating out of Baghdad stressed that the U.S. military should rapidly be focusing its efforts on reestablishing law and order.

Baghdad's hospitals have become a target for the widespread looting in the capital, much to the alarm of two medical aid agencies operating there, Aide Medicale Internationale (AMI) and Premiere Urgence.

AMI said only one of the capital's hospitals, the Saddam Centre for Plastic Surgery, was currently under U.S. military protection.