Women in shorts, booze, flags on buildings, expensive expats and poor communication have all helped create a negative image of Western aid agencies in Muslim-dominant countries.

Moustafa Osman, head of British-based Islamic Relief Worldwide's Disaster Response Unit, writes in the latest issue of Brussels-based quarterly journal Europe's World that these are some of the reasons why Western aid agencies have struggled to work in Indonesia's Aceh, Sudan's Darfur region, Iran following the Bam earthquake, or Iraq.

But it's not just a question of aid workers causing offence. Misperceptions can also mean locals view Western aid workers with suspicion. Some suspect they are Christian missionaries or even modern colonialists.

If aid agency offices are in compounds surrounded by sandbags and military-looking security, complete with flag, says Osman, "it is quite understandable that local people can see the NGOs as an occupying force."

Some organisations have been suspected of spying because they collect information and carry out socio-economic surveys.

If Western aid agencies import large numbers of personnel to do jobs that could just as well be performed by nationals, locals may question what these very expensive expats are up to.

And the idea of a hidden agenda is exaggerated when expensive development projects appear to have limited impact on ordinary people.

Osman says that in several disaster zones "local research has found that the impact of the aid effort by all the international NGOs was far outweighed in effectiveness by small local organisations and by the host government".

He cites a recent report - but doesn't say who it was written by - on the British government's Department for International Development work in Malawi.

He says the report found that of a total £3 million budget ($5.7m) given to a U.S. organisation to run a project to support the committee system in Malawi's parliament, £1m ($2m) had been spent on the salaries for the American staff, and £700,000 ($1.3m) on hotel and food bills for the staff and Malawian MPs.

In Iraq the image is worse, says Osman. Aid is delivered by armed military personnel, by contractors with weapons and aid workers with armed guards. "It is a real challenge for the local population to distinguish between... political or military actions and independent humanitarian aid..."

So what should Western relief agencies do?

Apart from the obvious - laying off the booze and dressing appropriately - Osman's advice is to use local experts and partners to help decide policy and take on more responsibility.

But here he gives a word of warning against putting too much confidence in locals who have been educated in the West - they are seen as Westernised by locals and not always respected.

Osman has one more suggestion: translate the agency's name into the local language and explain its mandate and aims - using local terms. Aid-world jargon like "strategy" and "evacuation" sound alarmingly like military terminology, Osman advises.

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