REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations accused Syria's government and rebels of hindering aid access, suggesting both sides could be violating UN Security Council demands that emergency relief reach civilians caught in the crossfire of the three-year civil war.

A month after the 15-member council achieved rare unity to unanimously approve a resolution demanding rapid, safe and unhindered aid access, including across borders, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the situation "remains extremely challenging."

In Ban's first report to the council on the implementation of the February 22 resolution - obtained by Reuters on Sunday - he said 175,000 people remain besieged by government forces and 45,000 people trapped by opposition groups in several areas. No new ceasefires were brokered to gain access to these areas and there were breaches of existing ceasefires, Ban said.

Some 9.3 million people in Syria need humanitarian assistance, Ban said, while another 2.6 million have fled the three-year civil war, sparked in March 2011 by a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.

"Humanitarian access in Syria remains extremely challenging for humanitarian organizations," Ban said. "Delivering life-saving items, in particular, medicines, remains difficult. And the assistance reaching people continues to fall far short of what is required to cover even their basic needs."

In the 13-page report, Ban said there were significant challenges to the delivery of aid in Syria.

"Including: the need for multiple requests for approval of inter-agency convoys, which often go unanswered; the Government's lack of internal communication of approvals to those on the ground, resulting in denial of access or delays at checkpoints; and continued insecurity," Ban said.

"Increased fighting between armed opposition groups, including between Free Syrian Army (FSA)-aligned and ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq), has complicated the delivery of assistance including the cutting off of key access routes in some locations in the northern parts of the country," he said.

The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 136,000 people had been killed during the conflict. Ban said that as the violence intensified, more people were slipping out of the reach of humanitarian help.

"Around 3.5 million people are now estimated to be in need of assistance in hard-to-reach areas, an increase of 1 million since the beginning of 2014," he said.

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