"According to Iranian government sources the death toll among Afghans in Bam amounts to some 3,600 people," the WFP said in a statement.

"Most of the victims have already been buried in the city itself, but the authorities of Afghanistan's southwestern Herat and Farah provinces, bordering Iran, foresee that up to 700 deceased may be brought to the country by their families," it said.

"It is expected that up to 3,000 Afghans living in Bam will thus travel to Afghanistan."

WFP would provide food and transport to assist them.

More than 100 tonnes of high-energy biscuits intended for Afghanistan have also been diverted from the Iranian po rt of Bandar-Abbas to help the relief effort in Bam itself, it said.

India, which contributed the biscuits originally destined for Afghan schoolchildren, had agreed to donate them to help the Iranian quake victims.

New Delhi would later replenish the supply for Afghan schoolchildren, it said.

"The biscuits, which provide each person with 450 kilocalories, are especially useful to stave off hunger in a critical period during the aftermath of a disaster, when people are unable to obtain food, let-alone prepare it," the WFP said.

Millions of Afghans fled the 1979 Soviet invasion and later Taliban regime to find refuge in neighbouring Iran and Pakistan.

Cash-strapped Afghanistan has also donated 150,000 dollars to Iran to help quake victims. A 20-member Afghan medical team has joined the rescue operation.

TERRA.WIRE