The United Nations' humanitarian coordinator for Syria has warned that failing to provide aid in time will bring "catastrophe" to the earthquake-hit nation. 

In an interview with CGTN, Muhannad Hadi also appealed for more funds.

"We are appealing to the world to provide us with financial assistance as soon as possible. The condition of the people is really heartbreaking. People cannot wait. We need to move fast and swift," he said. 

A devastating earthquake and a series of aftershocks hit southern Türkiye and northern Syria on Monday, killing more than 22,000 people.

The UN said on Friday it was rapidly exhausting the aid stocks it had in Syria and needed quick resupply to support the millions affected.

UN agencies said the response would last far beyond the immediate life-saving search-and-rescue stage.

The Bab al-Hawa crossing from Türkiye is currently the only way UN assistance can reach civilians in war-torn Syria without going through government-controlled areas. 

President Bashar al-Assad's government has also acknowledged shortcomings in its relief effort, blaming the consequences on 12 years of civil war and Western economic sanctions.

The UN has called for politics to be stripped out of the disaster response, as it looks to replenish its warehouses.

Hadi told CGTN that his team was doing the best it could to ensure humanitarian efforts would not be impeded by the sanctions, but added that there were several more obstacles.

"It's also bureaucratic impediments... it's a lot of issues sometimes that come between us and between the speed that we would like to to reach out to the people," he said. 

"We're always concerned about the people that we don't reach. That one woman, that one child that we missed on that day. This is what we focus about. Success is good, but in our case, failure is a catastrophe."

The U.S. Treasury Department said Thursday it had issued a license to allow earthquake-related relief to get through that would otherwise be prohibited by the sanctions on Syria.

The license lasts for six months. It expands on broad humanitarian authorizations already in effect.

Also on Friday, Syrian state media said the government had approved humanitarian aid delivery across the frontlines of the civil war, a move that could speed up the arrival of help for millions of people.

Aid distribution will take place in cooperation with the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, state media said, to "guarantee the arrival of this aid to those who need it."

It did not say when deliveries would take place.