....Tehran says it will accept aid from any country except Israel.....
Aid teams reach Iran quake zone
The first international specialist rescue teams have begun to arrive in Iran, after pleas from the authorities.
Estimates of the death toll range from 10,000 to 25,000 after a major quake hit the historic city of Bam on Friday.
A number of countries have pledged aid or dispatched rescue teams to the area, including the UK, Turkey, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France and Russia.
President Bush said the US was ready to help, and Tehran says it will accept aid from any country except Israel.
Many thousands have been injured in Bam and most of its buildings have been flattened, including two hospitals and the city's historic citadel.
There is concern about how to rescue those still alive, but buried deep under the rubble.
The exact death toll is still not clear, with local officials quoting figures of between 10,000 and 25,000.
The BBC's Jim Muir, in Bam, says there are scenes of chaos at the airport with a constant stream of wounded being ferried onto planes out of the city.
Rescue specialist Willie McMartin, of the International Rescue Corps, said about 90% of all casualties were recovered in the first 24 hours.
"We then go in to look for the people who are sub-surface, they're deeply trapped within the structures... that's where the specialists come in."
There is an urgent lack of body bags to take away the corpses.
'A national tragedy'
The only hospitals still functioning in Bam have been overwhelmed by the numbers of injured and many people are being treated in the rubble-strewn streets or taken to other towns for treatment.
The Iranian Health Minister Ahmed Pezeshkin has appealed for medicine and equipment.
He said more foreign volunteers were not really needed because Iran was having trouble co-ordinating its efforts.
Water, electricity and gas supplies have been cut and people had to light fires in the street to keep warm as temperatures plummeted overnight.
Roads leading to the city have become jammed with emergency vehicles and people travelling to find missing relatives.
President Mohammad Khatami described the quake as a "national tragedy" and said it was too huge for Iran to cope with alone.
Dozens of Iranian military planes have been mobilised to evacuate the wounded from the earthquake-hit zone to hospitals in Tehran and other cities.
'US ready to help'
The international Red Cross has launched an appeal for $12.3 million aims to provide assistance to Iran.
The European Union has pledged almost a million dollars in aid to Iran.
The United Nations is sending experts to assess the damage and mobilise international assistance.
The first consignment of UN aid will include tents, blankets, cooking equipment, water purification units and food.
Iranians themselves have responded in large numbers to appeals for blood donations and emergency supplies.
The US has offered humanitarian assistance, despite tense relations with Tehran. US President George W Bush said he was "ready to help".
A number of other countries - including Russia, Britain, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Pakistan and Spain - have offered to send relief teams and supplies.
They have been joined by offers of cash aid by Australia and medical assistance from Japan.
'I have lost my family'
Bam and the surrounding area is home to more than 200,000 people. About 70% of the houses in Bam have been destroyed, Iranian state television reported.
It is thought many people were crushed as they slept.
There were scenes of intense grief in the city, with people weeping next to corpses shrouded in blankets.
"I have lost all my family. My parents, my grandmother and two sisters are under the rubble," Maryam, 17, told Reuters.
Friday's quake had a magnitude of at least 6.3, according to Iranian sources. The US Geological Survey measured it at 6.7.
Bam - about 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) south-east of Tehran - was on the Unesco's list of World Heritage Sites.
An important regional centre in the 16th and 17th centuries, it contained many ancient buildings that were not built to withstand earthquakes.
The country suffers frequent earthquakes, with small tremors happening almost daily. In one earthquake in 1990, around 40,000 people died.
Since 1991, tremors have claimed some 17,600 lives and injured 53,000 people, according to official figures.
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