Bam, Iran ? As survivors of Iran’s earthquake scavenged for clothes and jostled for handouts Tuesday, President Mohammad Khatami thanked the United States for aid but played down talk that Washington’s contribution would thaw frosty relations.

Khatami’s remarks came after Secretary of State Colin Powell said he saw a “new attitude” in Iran that could lead to a restoration of ties between the United States and the Islamic republic that President Bush has called part of an “axis of evil.”

“There are things happening, and therefore we should keep open the possibility of dialogue at an appropriate point in the future,” Powell was quoted as saying in Tuesday’s Washington Post.

Iranian leaders have agreed to permit unannounced inspections of the country’s nuclear energy program and made overtures to moderate Arab governments. They also accepted an offer of U.S. humanitarian aid after last week’s devastating magnitude-6.6 earthquake.

“All of those things taken together show, it seems to me, a new attitude in Iran in dealing with these issues — not one of total, open generosity,” Powell said. “But they realize that the world is watching and the world is prepared to take action.”

The quake death toll had reached 28,000 by Tuesday and was expected to rise, said the chief U.N. aid worker in the disaster zone around the ancient city of Bam, in Iran’s southeast.

In the latest U.S. shipment, an American military plane carrying 80 personnel and medical supplies landed early Tuesday in the provincial capital of Kerman. The team reached Bam, 120 miles away, by midday.

Seven U.S. Air Force C-130 cargo planes have already delivered 150,000 pounds of relief supplies — including blankets, medical supplies and water — making the United States one of the largest international donors.

In Kerman, Khatami said the death toll was expected to top 30,000 — roughly a third of the city’s population. At least 12,000 people were injured. Downplaying higher figures, he said the death toll “definitely won’t reach 40,000.”

U.S. Air Force C-130 crew members and Iranian soldiers unload five pallets of medical supplies at Kerman, Iran, for distribution in the earthquake-ravaged ancient city of Bam. Iran insists that the American aid won't thaw relations between the two countries, but U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell says he thinks the door is open to closer ties.

“Humanitarian issues should not be intertwined with deep and chronic political problems,” Khatami said of any connection between American relief support and diplomatic ties. “If we see change both in tone and behavior of the U.S. administration, then a new situation will develop in our relations.”

The United States and Iran have not had diplomatic relations since radical Islamists overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979, took Americans hostage and held them until January 1981.

Powell tempered his comments about the possibility of restored ties, adding that “we still have concerns about terrorist activities, of course, and there are other issues with respect to al-Qaida and other matters that we’ll have to keep in mind.”