MEANWHILE, AN AUSTRALIAN CATERER SEEMS TO BE CONDUCTING "NORMAL OPERATIONS"

At the other end of the scale, Brisbane-based catering firm Morris Corp has been on the ground in Baghdad for three months, supplying food to coalition forces.

"We are currently feeding about 10,000 people, but there are opportunities happening all the time," a company spokesman said.

The company's owner, Robert McVicker, is in the Iraqi capital running the operation, using skills developed while catering for remote-site mines back home.

A joint venture between Sydney-based Australian Power and Water and Tasmania's ConFac has also set up in Iraq, offering consulting and contracting services in the power and water industries. APW-ConFac director Simon Stolp said there were strong opportunities in both sectors, with about $US19 billion ($28 billion) to be spent on power alone over the next 10 years.

"We're confident about the future as the security and business environments improve," he said.

Mr Stolp, who last month spent several weeks in Iraq, said he had not encountered any other Australian business representatives in the country.

"The biggest issue is of course security, but when you are on the ground things are not as bad as they read in the newspapers," he said.