Five schools were also due to reopen on Monday, the deputy regional director in charge of education, Abdolvahed Mostafavi, told the official IRNA news agency.

It appeared likely classes would take place under tents as most buildings have been destroyed or so severely damaged there are fears that the continuing aftershocks could bring them down.

A new jolt of 3.5 on the Richter scale hit Bam Friday evening following 29 significant aftershocks in the first week after the massive temblor, IRNA said.

Everywhere in the city, people were cleaning up debris and refuse services were back in action.

Thousands of Iranian volunteers, many from the Red Crescent, have flooded into town to help an estimated 40,000 people still living here, mostly in small tents, on the streets or in back gardens.

Some 35,000 people were killed and 17,000 wounded in the December 26 quake, the regional deputy commander of the hardline Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Fatahi, told IRNA Saturday.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crecent Societies and the United Nations are to issue a joint appeal for reconstruction aid during a visit here Wednesday by Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, a Red Cross official told AFP.

Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi and Interior Minister Abdelvahed Mussavi Lari will also join the federation's president Juan Manuel Suarez del Toro and UN Undersecretary General for humanitarian affairs Jan Egeland for the launch here, the official added.

At a damaged but still standing downtown branch of the Millat Bank, employees were preparing to open for business Saturday after the central bank ordered all banks back to work.

Employees have retrieved a number of computers and files from three other city branches that were completely destroyed to help track accounts.

They also retrieved a large safe which two specialists were preparing to crack open, the codes having been lost when bank managers were killed.

Elsewhere the Parstel telephone company has set up a number of emergency lines at two separate locations, allowing people to call relatives and friends free of charge throughout the country.

A bus carrying dentists and their equipment was also doing the rounds of the city, providing emergency dental care.

Authorities were carrying out a census of the local population to find out how many remain and determine who will be transferred to new tent cities being set up around town.

But "not everbody accepts the idea of moving into camps," according to Rahim Elmi, a 42-year-old Red Crescent team leader from the northern Iranian city of Tabriz.

"It would be a lot easier to look after them in camps but many don't want to go. They are afraid of leaving their destroyed homes, fearing that their valuables still buried in the rubble might be looted," said Elmi.

A new camp was set up some seven kilometres (nearly five miles) east of the city, but only 15 families had so far moved in to the tents which could provide accommodation for up to 140 families, he said.

One woman, living with her family in a small tent set up on a public square in town, strongly objected to the idea of being moved to a camp.

"We are all farmers, we have land to work. We don't want to be moved away from our plots," she said.

The woman, who declined to be identified, said the government shouldn't make promises about reconstruction it couldn't fulfil.

"In any case we want foreigners to build us new houses, not the government. That way they would be safer," she added.

"People are very reluctant to move. It's a mental thing," said Jasper Lund, the UN aid coordinator.

"People are getting over the initial shock and are starting to wonder about their future. But they are afraid of being put into camps, fearing this will delay reconstruction."

Running water and electricity was available in several parts of town, while trucks delivered water to other points.

People used the rubble of crumbled houses as lavatories. The sewage system remained largely operational.

"The town didn't have a sophisticated sewage system in any case, so it pretty much allows for a natural way of getting rid of things," said Lund.

TERRA.WIRE