UN admits underestimating the cost and scale of Libya refugee problem

But Rashid Khalikov, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Libya also said the situation remained fluid and unpredictable.The U.N. pulled its international staff out of Libya in late February due to growing insecurity, but its food and refugee agencies have provided limited assistance in the east, Khalikov who has held talks in Tripoli, said last month.

But U.N. aid agencies still await security clearances from the world body in New York before deploying in Libya.

Libyans are suffering dire shortages in areas caught up in the conflict, above all in cities under siege from Muammar Gaddafi's forces, residents and aid workers say.

A doctor in the city of Misrata, where clashes persist, told Reuters on Saturday (April 2) 160 people, most of them civilians, had been killed in the fighting there in the past seven days.

"The situation inside Libya continues to be a cause of serious humanitarian concern. So far I would like to tell you that United Nations doesnt have established international presence in Libya though United Nations used to have established and maintained this national presence in Libya after end of February when international workers had to leave because of security concerns. We are trying to analyse the situation now however I would like to say that absence of international presence does not make it easier to collect and analyse information on which response can be designed," Khalikov said.

Khalikov says he is seriously concerned for civilians trapped in between hostilities and who cannot access basic services.

Libyan officials and the International Committee of the Red Cross have had positive talks on expanding the ICRC's humanitarian activities there, it said.

ICRC and U.N. aid officials have also provided assistance to many of the more than 400,000 people fleeing Libya who have crossed into neighbouring countries like Tunisia and Egypt.

Khalikov on Saturday visited the Ras Jdir transit point on the Tunisian-Libyan border. The number of migrants crossing is now steady but help is still needed in evacuating workers mainly from sub-Saharan Africa, he said.

He said they were launching a new appeal for funding because they had underestimated the number of people who needed to flee Libya and be evacuated. He also said the aid organisations had to foot the bill for some nationals' flights out.

He added that the situation was manageable for now but fragile.

"First it appeared that air evacuation of third country nationals is much more expensive than we thought it would be. Initial plans, planning figure was 400,000 people would cross the border but nobody expected that so many of them would have to be evacuated. That appear to be much more expensive than we thought. In order to maintain this steady evacuation of people we had to increase quite dramatically the requirement of resources. In some instances governments provided their free to evacuate their nationals in some countries , in some cases it has not, So those who are dealing evacuation moving from commercial flights to charter back to commercial flights back to charter again its very complicated operation that's why it is basically the increase," he said.

He also said sub-Saharan Africans said one of their main fears was being accused of being mercenaries in Libya.