The Iraq, with about 100 deaths a day and civilians fleeing neighborhoods and towns because of the cycle of Sunni-Shiite reprisal attacks.

Oct. 27, 2006, AP- The United Nations estimates that at least 320,000 people have left their homes in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion, some for temporary quarters elsewhere in Iraq, some for Syria, Jordan and other places, Jan Egeland said.

"That is not irreversible, but the longer it goes, the more you cement the situation," Egeland said in an interview with The Associated Press, citing experience from the Balkans, Lebanon and other ethnic and religiously driven conflicts.

The figure of 100 violent deaths a day comes from checks of morgues in Baghdad and elsewhere by the U.N. and other aid groups, he said.

"The violence has come completely out of control, with revenge killings in so many areas," Egeland said. The numbers, he said, tell the story of "how much the civilian population is suffering, and how important it is now to appeal to everybody who can stop it."

Egeland said religious, ethnic and cultural leaders in and out of Iraq have a responsibility to try to end violence, as do Iraq's Muslim and Arab neighbors. He would not say whether Iran, with its close ties to Iraq's Shiite minority, is playing a helpful or unhelpful role, and he said he would not offer suggestions for what the United States should do to counter the killings.

Egeland said there is not yet a full-blown humanitarian crisis in Iraq, partly because of the efforts of U.N. and other aid workers. He counted Iraq among the most dangerous places in the world for U.N. workers, along with Afghanistan, Somalia and the Darfur region of Sudan.

The U.N.'s presence and activity in Iraq has been limited since the bombing of its headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003. That attack killed 22 people, including the top U.N. envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello.