Umm Qasr, Iraq ? To the squawk of radios and the cheers of residents, British military engineers restored power to Iraq’s major seaport for the first time in weeks, a major step in reopening the harbor and funneling desperately needed humanitarian aid deeper into the war-torn country.

British engineers and U.S. Navy Seabees, working into the night, replaced batteries stolen by fleeing Iraqis before the invasion to fire back-up generators that quickly bathed 75 percent of the town in electric lighting.

“A lot of things must have been left on when the power was cut, because suddenly you heard all these radios come on and the people started cheering,” said Maj. John Taylor of the Royal Engineers.

Before the war, water and electricity for Umm Qasr came from Basra, the main regional city. Authorities in the country’s dominant Baath Party cut both utilities before the fighting started, Taylor said.

Beyond Umm Qasr’s 30,000 residents, the restored electricity held a bigger implication for the rest of Iraq. It meant conveyer belts at the port’s hulking and empty 12-story silos can begin functioning again, handling U.S. and Australian grain shipments waiting offshore.

Though food and water have already reached the Persian Gulf port — including the first Royal Navy supply ship last week — it remained too risky for aid groups to begin large-scale shipments into Iraq’s interior.

Instead, they have serviced only the towns nearest the Kuwaiti border.

Humanitarian aid is seen in the dock of the southern Iraqi port of Umm Qasr. The supplies include bowls, towels, buckets, food and even crayons and drawing paper for the children.

Umm Qasr’s four-mile port, the main maritime connection between Iraq and the world, is still being cleared of mines. Just up the road in Basra, the country’s second-largest city, fighting rages between British troops and forces loyal to Saddam Hussein.

But the stage was set Tuesday for Umm Qasr to become the new lifeline for a Saddam-free Iraq. A water pipeline from Kuwait was opened a day earlier, bringing in 600,000 gallons a day to fill tanker trucks driven by Iraqis into newly liberated zones.

What aid has reached people in coalition-controlled zones has been distributed by troops and in two truck shipments from the Kuwaiti Red Crescent Society last week.

The trucks were virtually looted by desperate Iraqis at a border town.