UNITED NATIONS, March 17 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - In yet another sign war was only days or even hours away, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said Monday, March 17, he had ordered the evacuation of UN arms inspectors and humanitarian staff from Iraq and had suspended the oil-for-food program there.

The UN peacekeeping force monitoring the 1991 Gulf War ceasefire along the Iraq-Kuwait border will also be withdrawn, he told reporters.

"The Council has taken note of my decision," Annan said after meeting the Security Council behind closed doors, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

However, Annan said that if the United States led a military strike against Iraq, the UN would do its best to continue feeding the Iraqi people. "We have contingency plans," he said.

"War is always a human catastrophe," Annan said. "A lot of people are going to be uprooted from their homes."

Earlier in Baghdad, spokesman of the UN disarmament inspectors told AFP they were "likely" to evacuate Iraq on Tuesday ahead of a looming U.S.-led war, as diplomats said all UN staff were poised to pull out.

"We are likely to leave on Tuesday, but we still have to wait for further instructions from our headquarters in New York," Hiro Ueki said.

As well as the inspectors, there are also staff from a string of UN humanitarian agencies working in Iraq. Diplomats said they too were preparing to leave.

U.S., British nationals quit Kuwait

Meanwhile, hundreds of U.S. and British nationals were flying out of Kuwait Monday after being advised by their embassies to leave immediately ahead of a likely U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Many of the passengers booked on the handful of planes heading out of the Gulf zone had just hours to pack and some had not even had time to inform their families of their impending return home.

"I was only told this afternoon by my company. I've had to leave a lot of stuff," said aerospace worker Dave Morgan from Stoke in central England as he queued at a check-in counter at Kuwait airport.

"I haven't even told my parents I'm coming home yet. I better do that after I've checked in."

Garry Ferry, from Tennessee, said he had been advised by his U.S.-funded government school that he should leave at 9:00 a.m. (0600 GMT).

Ferry said he was keen to get out for at least a couple of weeks, fearing a possible rise in anti-Western sentiment during any U.S.-led attack.

"It's fear about a very small percentage (of Islamic fundamentalists), but it only takes one man to shoot a gun."

A U.S. civilian was shot on the road approaching the main American military base in Kuwait in January.

The advisory from Washington came as a "result of an overall assessment of the security situation in the region".

The advisory was issued "to alert U.S. citizens that the State Department ordered all family members and non-emergency staff at the embassy in Kuwait to depart."

The warning cited the threat of a chemical or biological attack against Kuwait and urged U.S. citizens that choose to remain here to exercise vigilance and caution.

The British embassy in Kuwait advised its citizens to leave "urgently".

"If you are already in Kuwait, you should leave urgently while commercial flights remain available," the British advisory said.

The advisory was also carried on the Foreign Office website.

"There is the risk of an attack from Iraq in the event of hostilities. This might involve chemical and biological weapons. There have been recent attacks in Kuwait by terrorists. The threat to British individuals and organizations from terrorism is now high," it said.

"It will rise further in the event of hostilities with Iraq. Terrorist attacks in the region could involve the use of chemical and biological weapons or materials," the advisory added.

"Dependants of staff in the embassy in Kuwait have left. We are in the process of reducing our staffing to a core," the British embassy said.

Kuwait is home to some 8,000 Americans and an estimated 4,000 British nationals.