Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) Director Abolhassan Faqih says the first group of Iranian relief workers will be dispatched to Japan in the near future.

Faqih told IRNA on Friday that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan has accepted Iran's offer to dispatch relief workers and humanitarian assistance to the quake-stricken country and the IRCS is preparing the first consignment of Iran's humanitarian assistance.

Earlier on Sunday, the Iranian official met with the Japanese ambassador to Iran, Kinichi Kumano, and told him Iran was prepared to send food, medications to help the country deal with the recent disaster.

On March 11, an 8.9-magnitude earthquake, off the northeast coast of Japan's main island unleashed a 23-foot (7-meter) tsunami and was followed by more than 50 aftershocks for hours.

A week after the disaster devastated the northeast coast, Japan's police agency said on Saturday that 7,197 people had died and 10,905 were missing.

With hundreds of bodies washed ashore, the death toll is expected to rise much higher, possibly as high as 10,000.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has described the destructive earthquake and tsunami as Japan's worst crisis since World War II.