51.   The plan also calls for consolidating U.N. field operations under a single U.N. resident coordinator in each country with U.N. offices.

52.   A UN spokesman said donor countries which had backed the field operation up to now had made no immediate pledges of new cash.

53.   But despite the logistics build-up, Teramae said joint field operations against the Abu Sayyaf in the jungles of nearby Basilan island were still some distance away.

54.   Military chief of staff General Diomedio Villanueva said he would ask that the US trainors stay at the company headquarters instead of joining in the field operations.

55.   The ICRC also plans to carry out periodic surveys of its field operations to assess their impact.