With almost all of the 30,000 or so dead now buried and an official mourning period over, officials said a special committee had been formed to oversee plans for the rebuilding of the southeastern city and its ancient citadel.

"They have given themselves one month to come up with that plan," said Jesper Lund, a UN official in charge of the international relief effort.

Half the reconstruction cost, at the moment estimated to total at least 4,000 billion rials (400 million euros, 500 million dollars), would come from "external sources", Lund said.

But Iranian authorities appeared undecided over whether the city should be put up again on the same site, with fears over its stability compounded by the dozens of powerful aftershocks that have hit the area since the December 26 devastation.

Minds were also focused on the political dimension of the quake: arch-enemy Washington's sending of aid supplies and relief teams as well as the offer to follow up by flying over a top-level delegation.

"The time for such a visit has not yet come," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters in Tehran.

The United States approached Iran after the quake about the possibility of sending a delegation headed by top Republican Senator Elizabeth Dole and also suggested that a member of President George W. Bush's family might accompany her.

Had the mission gone ahead, it would have been the first public official US visit to the Islamic nation since a 1979-1981 crisis, when 52 Americans were held hostage in Iran for 444 days and the two countries broke diplomatic ties.

But Asefi said the Islamic regime, lumped into an "axis of evil" by Bush in 2002, needed more gestures before being in a position to resume any dialogue.

"If the dominant view in the American leadership is to break the wall of suspicion and they practically move in this direction, there will be another climate," he said.

After days of clearing away rubble and frantic searching for bodies among the ruins, the rhythm of life was slowly returning to normal in Bam -- with the focus shifting to the thousands of survivors who have spent more than a week under canvas in freezing conditions.

Thousands have fled the city in fear of more destruction, but most of the 40,000 people who survived the initial quake have been camping outside the ruins of their homes to protect what remains of their properties.

The provincial judiciary said security forces have arrested 140 looters since the quake struck, with the culprits transferred to the nearby city of Kerman and set to be "tried quickly".

"Life is coming back, structures are coming back," said Lund. "The target is to get everybody a more permanent shelter before the end of March."

Banks and even the local post office have reopened amidst the rubble, while classes were due to resume on Monday -- although local council official Ali Shafiie said some 9,000 students and 2,000 teachers were killed.

The Tehran press reported that one of Iran's sporting heroes -- weight-lifter Hossein Rezazadeh -- had auctioned the vest in which he won the 2003 world championships for 40,000 dollars to help fund a new orphanage for Bam.

Interior Minister Abolvahed Musavi-Lari said around 30,000 people had lost their lives in the quake. A top aide told state television they included more than 1,300 Afghan refugees.

On a lighter note, rescue workers revealed that the first request of the last survivor rescued from the ruins -- a 97-year-old woman found on Saturday after eight days under the ruins of her home -- had been for a cup of tea.

"'Has there been an earthquake?'" Denis McClean of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) quoted Shahr-Banou Mazandarani as asking her rescuer.

"'I am very cold. Can I have a cup of tea?'" said the elderly lady who was described as in good health despite fractured limbs and dehydration from her long ordeal.

TERRA.WIRE