Her remarks came in the same day when the UN World Food Program warned there may be short of food in Iraq at the end of April, warning that the humanitarian crisis in Iraq is looming.

"Our duty now is to minimize the suffering of the people of Iraq during the conflict and to ensure that humanitarian relief and support for reconstruction be in place. This requires a healing of international divisions," Short told British Houses of Commons.

The international society need "to come together and stop blaming each other...to bring the international community together over the reconstruction of Iraq and its people," she said.

She said the British government was providing US and UK troops with 30 million pounds (US$51 million) to kick off the humanitarian effort.

Short also stressed the need for UN to pass a new resolution so as to restart Iraq's Oil For Food program, which uses US$10 billion of Iraqi oil money every year and thus guarantees the daily survival of 16 million Iraqis.

Short threatened on March 9 to resign if Blair went into the war against Iraq without a new UN mandate. However, when Blair did it last week, she changed her mind and keep stay in the Cabinet, causing sharp criticisms across the country about her personal credibility.

(Xinhua News Agency March 25, 2003)