The World Food Programme ( WFP) on Tuesday started an airlift from Iraq to transport enough food to feed close to 30,000 displaced people for a month in northeast Syria, a UN spokesman said.

"The airlift comes amid growing problems in reaching people, especially in conflict and besieged areas," Martin Nesirky, the UN spokesman, said at a daily news briefing here. "It is the second such airlift from Erbil in Iraq to people who would otherwise be cut off from humanitarian assistance."

"The first World Food Programme-chartered flight landed at Qamishli airport with 40 metric tonnes of food," Nesirky said. "A total of 10 flights will deliver more than 400 metric tonnes of food, as well as other items -- mainly clothing, detergent and soap -- for UNICEF (the UN Children's Fund) and the International Organization for Migration."

The WFP airlifted food from Erbil to Qamishli in December for more than 62,000 people.

Overall, the WFP in January dispatched enough food for 3.6 million people in Syria, short of its target of 4.25 million as the governorates of Raqqa, Deir Ezzor, Rural Aleppo and Al- Hassakeh were inaccessible.

The closure of the Daraa-Damascus highway has also affected the dispatch of food to parts of Daraa, Quneitra, Damascus and Rural Damascus.

Security has deteriorated in Al Hassakeh Governorate in the past few weeks, displacing large numbers of people. Recently, around 7,500 people fled clashes that erupted in rural areas of Qamishli city, while others fled toward the Iraqi border.

Asked about whether any UN personnel have been released from detention, the spokesman said two staff have been safely released out of 21 being held and that the United Nations is trying to secure the release of all its personnel as soon as possible.

As for the date for the resumption of the Syria peace talks, Nesirky reiterated the expectation of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon and UN-Arab League Joint Special Representative Lakhdar Brahimi that the parties will show up for talks on February 10.

On Jan. 31, the Syrian government and opposition wrapped up what UN officials hope will be the first stage of talks to end the Arab country's civil war, with Brahimi, the chief mediator, reporting no breakthrough to stop the "unspeakable suffering" of the Syrian people, including access for humanitarian aid.

The basis of the Syria peace talks is full implementation of an action plan adopted in the Geneva Communique of 2012, the first international conference on the Syrian conflict, which calls for a transitional government to lead to free and fair elections. But the two parties made virtually no progress on one of the major issues -- access to humanitarian aid for 1.6 million Syrians, some of whom have been trapped for almost two years without regular food supplies.