Despite all of the expressions of support and concern from governments during a conference held in Geneva in April on displaced people in Iraq sponsored by the United Nations refugee agency, the two countries caring for the biggest proportion of Iraqi refugees - Syria and Jordan - have still received next to nothing in bilateral help from the world community, the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) said on Friday.

"Syria and Jordan, with an estimated 2 million Iraqi refugees between them, are struggling to cope. Syria continues to receive about 2,000 Iraqis a day, and about 30,000 a month end up staying. The growing refugee population and the communities that host them are facing enormous hardships that will only get worse if the international community doesn't put its money where its mouth is," said UNHCR .

UNHCR's 60 million dollar program for Iraqi refugees and displaced persons- soon to be raised to more than 100 million dollars - is just a drop in the ocean compared to the huge needs in the region, the agency said.

"While contributions to UNHCR have been generous, now totaling some 70 million dollars with another 10 million dollars pledged or in the pipeline, we cannot do everything alone," UNHCR stressed.

Donors must provide direct bilateral support to these host countries whose schools, hospitals, public services and infrastructure are seriously overstretched because of the presence of millions of Iraqis they have taken in, the agency said.

In Syria, for example, only 32,000 of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugee children in the country are actually in school. Syria, which is hosting 1.4 million Iraqis, is the only country in the region that allows free public school access for all Iraqi children. But it does not have the school places for all these children.

"A whole generation of Iraqi children is in danger of missing out on an education," UNHCR warned, stating that the Syrian education minstry is not getting the help it needs in providing more classrooms, teachers, educational materials and other support.

To try to cope, Syrian education officials have been forced to convert scores of public schools back to the double-shift system that the country had planned under a long-term national development plan to end by 2010.

UNHCR said it is working with the UN children's agency UNICEF on programmes to have at least 150,000 Iraqi children in school in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon by the end of 2007.

Syria's health infrastructure is also under severe strain and thousands of Iraqis are not receiving adequate medical care. Sick and maimed Iraqis - including many burn and trauma victims - are arriving in Syria each week in search of medical help.

UNHCR has set up three primary care medical posts is building two more. Despite this, the agency is currently referring 10,000 Iraqis a month to Syrian doctors and health care facilities, including 3,000 to hospitals, of whom about 15 percent are in urgent need of serious medical help.

Of the more than 57,000 Iraqis we've registered in Syria since the beginning of this year, more than 12,000 were victims of torture, UNHCR said.

"It is unconscionable that generous host countries be left on their own to deal with such a huge crisis. We strongly urge governments to step forward now to support them in dealing with this situation and renew our call for international solidarity and burden sharing, said the agency.