GENEVA (AFP) - The UN said on Tuesday it would for the first time begin airlifting food and other aid items across the border from Iraq to Syria after receiving the go-ahead from both governments.

"Our colleagues on the Iraqi side, with the permission of the Syrian government and also the cooperation of the Iraqi government, (are preparing for the) airlifting of supplies for winter from Arbil in Iraqi Kurdestan to Qamishli and Hassaka in north and northeast Syria," Amin Awad, who heads the UN refugee agency's Syria response, told reporters in Geneva.