"We are waiting for the planes to come and take us back home," US team leader Bill Garvelink said 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 members would stay behind to conduct sanitation work in the ancient city of Bam, hit by a massive quake on December 26 that killed up to 35,000 people and flattened most buildings.

The 80-strong team, mostly from the aid arm of the US State Department, USAID, arrived several days after the earthquake in what was seen by some 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 President George W. Bush -- to follow up on the aid delivery.

Iran, however, refused to accept the mission, saying the time was "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 for a high-level mission had been humanitarian in nature and not political.

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

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

The United Nations said Tuesday it would launch a multi-million dollar flash appeal this week to help fund reconstruction and relief efforts in Bam.

Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said donor countries had already pledged 74.8 million dollars (59 million euros) in cash and kind but did not specify how much would be sought in total.

Funds raised would be sufficient for just 90 days and would be divided between nine key areas, including food, water and reconstruction, with a main focus on health, she said in Geneva.

The World Health Organisation noted that so far there had been no large outbreak of disease as a result of the quake, but agreed that rebuilding health services was a top priority.

For his part, UN spokesman Jasper Lund said here that the homeless figure in Bam could reach around 75,000. This would include 45,000 people already in need of re-housing in the tent cities, another 25,000 who fled after the quake and could return and perhaps half of the 10,000 injured who had been evacuated.

He said some 30,000 people died in the quake, with perhaps another 2,000 bodies still to be found in the rubble, and that another 30,000 had been hurt.

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

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, while 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 suffered four. The towns are situated around 450 kilometers (280 miles) southwest of Tehran in Khuzestan province.

"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."

TERRA.WIRE