UN aid convoy reaches southern Lebanon port

TYRE, Lebanon, July 26 (Reuters) A large United Nations aid convoy arrived in the southern Lebanese port of Tyre today and aid workers said they planned to step up deliveries to an area devastated by Israeli bombardment.

The convoy of 10 trucks carrying 90 tonnes of food and basic medical supplies travelled from the capital Beirut down a so-called humanitarian corridor, a route cleared with Israel beforehand to ensure the vehicles were not bombed.

''We hope this is the tip of the iceberg,'' said Khaled Mansour, UN spokesman in Lebanon, after the gruelling six-hour drive to Tyre.

''We got here so it means the system is working, the humanitarian corridor is working.'' Young men unloaded the trucks, lugging sacks of wheat flour on their backs and stashing them in the underground parking lot of a bank.

The south of Lebanon has been blasted by Israeli shells for the past 15 days and heavy fighting between the Israeli army and Hizbollah guerrillas has sent hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the hilly border region.

Hundreds of cars streamed north today on the road from Tyre, crammed full of men, women, children and babies, desperate to escape the shelling and fierce fighting near Lebanon's southern border with Israel.

Mansour said the UN planned to send another aid convoy to Tyre from Beirut tomorrow, two on Friday and more on Saturday, hopefully establishing the humanitarian corridor as a ''regular process''.

He said aid workers were concerned about the welfare of civilians trapped in the border town of Rmeish, sandwiched between the Israeli border and the Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, the scene of intense battles today.

''This will be one of our major targets in the coming days,'' he said. The UN plans to inform the warring parties of plans to deliver aid to try to secure guarantees of safe passage.

Some 418 people, mostly civilians have been killed in Lebanon since the war began after Hizbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid.

Lebanese civilians fleeing the south of Lebanon have been hit by Israeli shells, as have medical aid workers and UN military observers, making aid trips to isolated villages especially hazardous.

''Lebanon has enough food, the roads are the issue,'' said Mansour, the boom of Israeli shells echoing from the hills just outside Tyre.

The 90 tonnes of food will be distributed in Tyre by local groups and the medical supplies -- antibiotics, treatment for diarrhoea, stitches for small wounds -- will go to a medical centre near Tyre.

The food can feed about 22,000 people for a week while the medical supplies should provide for 50,000 people for about three months, Mansour said.

REUTERS MQA PM2138