The agency said in a statement that 190 Iranian Kurds, who fled Iraq early last year to live in a desert area in western Iraq, "are putting themselves at risk" and cannot be assisted by the UNHCR for logistical reasons.

It urged them to take advantage of an agreement reached in September between the UNHCR and the Kurdistan Regional Government to relocate to Kawa in Arbil province in northern Iraq, the statement said.

The UNHCR "is mandated to protect the refugees who are within Jordanian territory, including those in Ruwayshid Camp," said Anne-Marie Deutschlander, acting UNHCR representative in Jordan.

"For both administrative and security reasons the Amman (UNHCR) office is unable to freely access those residing outside Jordanian borders," she added.

"The Iraqi-Jordanian border is neither a safe location nor one where UNHCR Jordan can access to provide protection or assistance," the statement said.

"The refugees remaining at the border are putting themselves, their families and the children who are part of this group at risk as no resettlement arrangements take place from this location," it added.

The agency pledged to provide financial assistance and transport to refugees willing to be relocated to Iraqi Kurdistan, where housing, food rations and educational facilities will be made available.

According to the UNHCR, the refugees are demanding to be allowed inside Jordan to a transit camp set up in the immediate aftermath of the US-led war on Iraq in March 2003, ahead of their resettlement by the UN agency to third countries abroad.

The Kurds, who fled Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, had been living in al-Tash refugee camp established two decades ago near the Iraqi city of Ramadi before fleeing last year. The area around Ramadi is a stronghold of Iraq's deadly insurgency.

Jordan, already home to 1.7 million Palestinian refugees, has repeatedly refused to take in more refugees for demographic and economic reasons.