UN gathers pledges for $2 bn Pakistan appeal

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations gathered new aid pledges for the Pakistan flood disaster on Sunday after making a record $2 billion appeal to feed millions of victims.

Twenty-five top ministers, including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, gathered in New York ahead of the UN summit this week, to discuss the new crisis in Pakistan.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called the floods "the worst natural disaster the United Nations has responded to in its 65-year history."

Norway more than tripled its emergency aid to Pakistan to $66 million today. "The situation is still highly critical for nine million people. We must now show our solidarity with the flood victims," said Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store, who is in New York.

Norway had already pledged 115 million kroner to the earlier Pakistan appeal and upped this to 400 million kroner ($66 million).

India has made an immediate $25 million contribution to its rival neighbour as soon as the appeal was made on Friday. The main world powers have held back from announcing their response to the record UN appeal though.

The floods, caused by weeks of torrential rain have killed more than 1,700 people, according to an official toll, but the UN said the massive surge has exposed more than 20 million people to homelessness, malnutrition, risks of epidemics and loss of livelihood.

UN officials have compared the disaster to the Haiti earthquake and 2004 Asian tsunami even though the death toll is significantly lower.

The UN said money was needed to buy food, set up emergency camps, rebuild agriculture and villages which have seen drinking water and sanitation wiped out.

The flood water is still moving from the north of Pakistan to southern provinces causing huge new emergencies.

Agencies have warned of a looming health crisis with 709,000 cases of acute diarrhoea, almost one million cases of skin disease, more than 800,000 cases of acute respiratory infections and hundreds of thousands of cases of malaria and dengue fever that are spread by mosquitoes.