ABDULAY, Kuwait, March 23 --

Almost no humanitarian aid has reached Iraq since the start of the war, and unanticipated military battles and logistical problems in the southern part of the country made it unclear when aid will arrive for people who in some cases are without water and electricity and have been pleading for help, aid officials said.

In a sign that the problem is serious, President Bush said today that "massive amounts" of humanitarian aid were poised to move into Iraq in the next 36 hours. "That's going to be positive news for those who suffered a long time under Saddam Hussein," he told reporters as he returned to the White House from Camp David.

Most aid organizations say emergency supplies of water, food rations, medicine, shelter materials and hygiene kits are in place in countries bordering Iraq, but none can be brought in because fighting prevents aid teams from entering the country to assess the needs.

"I mean we're ready to go, but we will not go into an unsafe combat environment. We're not trained for that, and not equipped," said Michael Marx, a disaster relief specialist with the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance.

"I don't think anyone would think it's a good idea to go in right now when it's so extremely dangerous," said Susan Romanski, an emergency program officer in Kuwait for the humanitarian aid organization Mercy Corps International.

Among the few aid organizations at work inside Iraq is the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has skeleton staffs in Baghdad, Basra and northern Iraq. They've been able to get medicine and surgical supplies to two Baghdad hospitals and to patch together a source of water for the residents of Basra, according to spokeswoman Tamara Al-Rifai. "Since Friday night, the water treatment plants in Basra have not been functioning because of power cuts," she said. Now, 40 percent of the population does have water, she said, though the water they are drinking is treated river water from the Euphrates.

In addition, a small team of doctors with the group Doctors Without Borders has started work in the al-Kindi hospital in northeastern Baghdad to aid victims of the air strikes, a spokesman said. "We have been operational since last night," Ewald Stals told Reuters from his office in Brussels. "They will stay in Baghdad as long as they are needed. We will have to weigh a careful balance between operational needs and their security."

Marx heads a 62-member rapid response team that has so far spent $50 million on food and commodities but has yet to get its members inside Iraq. Some team members had hoped to make a first foray early this week into the port city of Umm Qasr, but as of Sunday night, there were still gun battles and exploding bombs in the town. In the port, mine sweepers crisscrossed the water while a relief ship idled well offshore.

The continued fighting has meant a delay that filters down to all the independent humanitarian organizations.

"Most NGOs [non-governmental organizations] are very busy writing proposals because we think, or at least hope, that money is going to be available soon," Romanski said, listing several government organizations in the United States and Europe that have indicated they are ready to sign contracts with NGOs to deliver water and food inside Iraq. "Having said that, no checks have come in, but I'm optimistic the money will come at some point."

Zaki Khoury, of the International Rescue Committee, was less optimistic. "It's frustrating," he said. "It's not clear when we will get in the country."

Among the frustrations, he said, is a debate over identification badges between NGOs and the Humanitarian Operations Center, which is managed by the U.S. military in conjunction with the Kuwaiti government. The NGOs want to carry their own identification cards, Khoury said, but the HOC proposed to issue them, which would "taint our neutrality and put us in dangerous situations once we're identified by a U.S. military badge."

Aid from U.N. agencies such as the World Food Program and UNICEF depends on Iraq being declared secure enough for their international staffs -- pulled out just before fighting began -- to return. "It's a process of getting information that's accurate," said Antonia Paradela, spokeswoman for the World Food Program. "And right now, we have conflicting information. In Umm Qasr, for instance, we have heard that there is no food and we have heard that there is food. It's a terrible time for us. We'll try to get in as soon as the situation is a bit stable, but in the meantime we'll be trying to get information that is accurate so that we can react."

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