"When you only get to pull dead people from the rubble, it's often very frustrating for rescuers," said Amar Ben Abdesselam, a doctor from the Algerian civil protection unit.

"Normally, four to five days after a quake you still find people injured. Here, two days after the quake, there were only dead people," he said.

"When you get somebody out alive, it give a boost to the whole team," the doctor added.

But he acknowledged that even the recovery of bodies helped families come to terms with their grief. "They thanked us for doing it," he added.

Iranian state media for their part said that on Tuesday and Wednesday a total of 16 survivors were pulled out alive from the ruins of Bam and surrounding villages, including a four-month-old baby, a 12-year-old girl and a 26-year-old man.

In all, some 2,000 people were found alive amid the devastation, most of them in the first days after the quake.

More than 1,500 relief workers from 30 countries, including Austria, Turkey, Russia, the United States, South Africa, China, Norway and the Czech Republic, have streamed in to Bam, according to UN disaster assessment coordination team leader Jesper Lund.

He suggested that initial cooperation between the different foreign organisations and the Iranian authorities was "very good", but he and other sources indicated that there had been problems.

"The first teams in were people with good organisations, used to hierarchical chains of command. But with an increasing number of small NGOs now coming in, it's becoming more and more difficult" to coordinate, Lund said.

"Some organisations want to do their own thing. Everybody needs to understand the need to work together," he added.

Hiroyuki Kumagai, a Japanese foreign ministry official attached to a 23-strong government medical team, said his group which arrived five days ago hoped to be setting up a small clinic on Thursday.

"We wanted to choose the best site for our hospital, but there have been disputes between different countries over where to set up," he said.

"We found six or seven different locations, but lost them to other larger groups as there was no way to reserve the space," he added.

Jung Sangkooan, second in command of the South Korean rescue team, acknowledged that "coordination has been difficult.

His 24-man team was leaving Bam Thursday after four days during which they recovered 75 bodies, but not a single survivor.

"Over a two-day period, we only found two dead," said Nuno Marques, a member of the Portuguese team said for his part.

"Mechanical diggers began working on the ruins before we could get to some places and the dogs couldn't smell anything anymore. We're frustrated. But it's not our fault, the type of building didn't allow for air pockets which could have helped people trapped underneath to survive," he added.

"I think the (Iranian) government would now like foreign teams to leave so they can carry out operations themselves," said Sonia Kimps, of the Belgian first aid and support team.

Other teams, small in number or who arrived late, ran into difficulties as they sought to coordinate their efforts with others or find locations to set up their installations.

"It's surprising, they called off the search and rescue operation. Since yesterday, it's just been one order countermanded by another," said Thierry Velu, head of a small French group.

"It's the strongest organisations that call the shots," he added.

Velu's team arrived Tuesday but was already thinking of departing Thursday, leaving behind the medecine and water treatment equipment they brought with them.

A well-equipped French mobile hospital, provided by the national civil defence agency, has been extremely active, carrying out a number of major operations, including Ceasarian births.

Spokesman Major Eric Soupra said that in two days since the 60-strong team, including nine doctors, had set up the facility more than 150 people were treated for everything from bone fractures to the common cold.

TERRA.WIRE