Secretary General Kofi Annan says he hopes to see some improvements in streamlining the United Nation's food-for-oil programme, the only source for subsidised food for more than 60 per cent of Iraq's population.

"As recently as on Tuesday the (Security) Council was discussing the food-for-oil programme and how the procedures can be streamlined to accelerate delivery of goods," Annan told reporters on Wednesday after meeting with the Austrian foreign minister in Vienna.

He admitted that it has been a rather 'cumbersome procedure' and that attempts were being made to streamline it to be able to facilitate shipment of goods into the country. But he did not say when or how early the shipments could be made.

Benon Sevan, Executive Director of the UN Office of the Iraq programme, which oversees it, has urged the Security Council to extend it until June 3 so that supplies already in the pipeline can be delivered.

Under the programme Iraq was allowed to use a portion of its oil revenues to buy food and other relief supplies, while the rest was used for reparation claims against Baghdad stemming from its invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

The programme was temporarily halted on March 17 after the withdrawal of all UN staff from Iraq on the eve of hostilities. The Security Council adopted a new resolution on March 28 giving Annan more authority to administer it until 12 May, including prioritising deliveries and finding new entry ports to speed shipment.

But many outside experts such as Dennis Halliday, the former UN coordinator of the Iraqi oil-for-food programme, have expressed misgivings that further delay in delivering the food might lead to a serious situation in Iraq.

'I think that in three to four weeks time we are going to have a serious food crisis in Iraq," Halliday told rediff.com. "The supplies that had been distributed in January and February will run out and people will face food problems and healthcare problems."

He blamed the tardiness of the Security Council for the emerging situation and said, "It is playing politics with the lives of the Iraqis."

In response to a question about the dispute over the return of UN weapons inspectors to Iraq, Annan said the Security Council resolution on the books states that the inspectors are to go back, although he added the Council is free to amend that resolution. "Of course, the situation in Iraq has changed. The current resolution will demand that the inspectors go back. The Council is free to amend it and it may well do that. But until they do that, this is a resolution on the books ..." Halliday said.

Hans Blix, Executive Chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission in charge of searching for banned chemical, biological and ballistic weapons, and Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which was searching for nuclear materials, told the Security Council on Tuesday that they would like the inspections teams to return.