"We are waiting for the planes to come and take us back home," said US team leader Bill Garvelink, as his group packed up its field hospital and passed its patients and equipment over to the Red Cross and Red Crescent.

He said nine team members would stay behind to conduct sanitation work in the city of Bam, hit by a massive quake on December 26 that killed up to 35,000 people.

The team, mostly from the aid arm of the US State Department, USAID, arrived here several days after the earthquake in what was seen as a major political gesture by Washington.

The United States also temporarily and partially suspended its unilateral sanctions against Iran and offered to send a high level delegation -- including figures close to US President George W. Bush -- to follow up on the aid delivery.

Iran, however, refused to accept the mission, saying the "time is not yet right" for such high level contacts and complaining that it had been receiving mixed signals from Washington. Tehran and Washington cut diplomatic ties nearly 25 years ago, and Bush has lumped Iran into an "axis of evil."

On Monday, the United States insisted its rejected plan to send a high-level mission to Iran had been humanitarian in nature and not political.

Meanwhile, Iran was jolted by more earthquakes on Tuesday -- this time in the southwest of the country.

State radio said several villages near the towns of Masjed Soleiman and Izeh were damaged when 11 tremors struck the area in quick succession.

The quakes measured between 3.2 and 4.8 on the open-ended Richter scale, but caused no casualties, state radio said, nevertheless warning locals to be prepared for a possible major earthquake.

The report said Izeh was hit by seven tremors, while the nearby oil and gas centre of Masjed Soleiman was hit by four. The towns are situated around 450 kilometers (280 miles) southwest of Tehran in Khuzestan province.

"In five villages in the area of Masjed Soleiman, houses suffered damage of between 10 and 50 percent. In Izeh, homes and cowsheds were also damaged," the report said.

"We do not know if the tremors will be followed by a more powerful earthquake. But in this kind of situation the best solution is for people to move to tents in their gardens," said Sadid Khoie, an official from the geophysics centre of Tehran University.

He told state radio successive tremors are "a warning of a more powerful earthquake, and inhabitants of the area should be vigilant."

In Bam, survivors of the earthquake continued moving into vast tent cities away from the rubble.

Nearly two weeks after the disaster, families who have endured freezing temperatures and little sanitation in makeshift tents by the rubble of their homes began moving into a network of camps set up by Iranian authorities and aid agencies.

The government and United Nations are presently drawing up a reconstruction plan and appeal for more funds. Authorities have promised to rebuild the city in 18 months.

TERRA.WIRE