By Megan Rowling

Aid agencies should use a recent improvement in security in Iraq to launch a "surge" in humanitarian assistance needed to rebuild communities torn apart by sectarian violence, a global medical charity said on Friday.

"If we want security to lead to long-term stability, then a humanitarian surge has to occur immediately," Agron Ferati, Iraq country director for International Medical Corps (IMC), told Reuters AlertNet in an interview.

Aid groups, he said, must use "the window of opportunity that we have, to sustain the change and basically bring dignity back to the Iraqis".

Despite a sharp drop in violence in the past few months -- partly due to a "surge" of an extra 30,000 U.S. troops in Iraq -- the United Nations estimates there are still more than 2.4 million displaced within Iraq.

Another 2.2 million refugees are living in neighbouring countries. Many had left their homes as sectarian strife increased after the bombing of a revered Shi'ite shrine in Samarra in February 2006.

Ferati said Iraqis had started to go back to their homes in major cities in the past six weeks as violence eased, and it was essential for aid agencies to make a difference within the coming year by boosting efforts to improve living conditions.

"The trend has reached the level where people have no access to basic services, they have no access to jobs, so they cannot sustain their own families," he said.

"The shift in the security situation really gives us a window of opportunity where we have to increase our assistance to Iraqis -- bridge the gap in the current vacuum of services that the government of Iraq is not able to deliver."

CHANGING CONFLICT

Ferati, who is from Kosovo and has been based in Baghdad since March 2003, said sectarian divisions have started to become less important.

"In the past couple of months, we have noticed that the sectarian differences are suddenly becoming a secondary issue -- jobs, family, unity are becoming a priority for Iraqis," he said.

"It's not that they want us to help them but they have no other alternatives at this point in time."

IMC called on the international community to boost its humanitarian support to Iraq -- not just by providing more aid money, but by contributing human resources and working at a local level to integrate communities.

More than two-thirds of aid groups which worked in the country in 2003 have left as violence threatened their staff, according to the NGO Coordination Committee in Iraq.

But IMC, which provides health services, emergency food aid, water and sanitation in 16 of Iraq's 18 provinces, continued to manage its operations from Baghdad.

Ferati conceded that the risks for aid workers in Iraq were likely to remain high but said they could operate most safely and effectively by working closely with local communities and gaining their trust.

"If we go out there and start building our own kingdom in their neighbourhood, then the environment will be worse - not only for those [aid groups] who are coming in, but for those who have been present there and sustained their operations," he warned. "There is really no time for mistakes."

For further information, visit IMC UK's website. Agron Ferati will speak at a discussion event on Nov. 29 in London, Responding to humanitarian needs in Iraq, organised by the Overseas Development Institute.