GENEVA, Dec 28: The first US plane landed in Iran on Sunday with aid for the earthquake-stricken town of Bam, as governments set aside political differences with the Islamic republic to tackle a catastrophe that left 20,000 dead.

With countries from across the world dispatching medicine, food and emergency accommodation, the United Nations said it was now turning the focus of relief efforts away from searching for survivors to the recovery phase.

It said it would now concentrate on recovering bodies and sheltering the homeless amid reports that 1,000 people were pulled out of the ruins of Bam at the weekend.

The giant US Hercules C-130 arrived in the city of Kerman in southeastern Iran early on Sunday carrying aid workers and medical material for rescue operations in Bam.

The aid delivery is a rare action of humanitarian support for Iran by the United States, which broke off diplomatic relations following the storming of the US embassy in Tehran by the students in 1979.

The White House, which has said Iran is part of an “axis of evil”, has announced it is sending 200 emergency relief workers to the country and will deliver 68,000 kilos in medical supplies.

Egypt, which has also had no diplomatic ties with Iran since 1980, sent two military cargo planes with 10.5 tonnes of aid to the affected area in southeastern Iran.

Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates, which has a dispute with Iran over three strategic Gulf islands, launched aid flights on Sunday with the first delivery containing 30 tonnes of relief supplies.

As the aid supplies started to arrive in Iran, the United Nations in Geneva said it expected that search for survivors would end on Sunday, adding that it would be a “miracle” if any more people were pulled out of the ruins alive.

“There is an acceptance that we are coming out of the rescue phase and moving now into, unfortunately, the body recovery phase and then on to the longer phase of reconstruction,” said Ted Pearn, the UN coordinator on site in Bam, reached by phone.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it had 35 tonnes of medical supplies, tents, blankets and bedding loaded and ready to go in Jordan, while a 33-ton shipment of German aid including three water purification stations took off from Frankfurt-Hahn airport.

Meanwhile a report in Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said Tokyo was considering sending its Self-Defence Forces personnel to Iran to help in relief work.—AFP