The initial stage of InAs growth on GaAs(001) substrates has been investigated by atomic force microscopy. Three-dimensional (3D) islands of a uniformly small size and high density were observed at the initial stage not only for low substrate temperature (T-s) but also for low V/III ratio. This is explained by a simple model based on the difference in the growth rate between strained and relaxed InAs surfaces. The 3D islands are found to agglomerate after the growth is interrupted under As pressure. We suppress the agglomeration and obtain an atomically flat InAs surface.