Quake-hit Pakistan pledged $5.8 billion in aid

The world boosted aid pledges for quake-devastated Pakistan to $5.8 billion yesterday after the United Nations warned there could be a second disaster as survivors face the bitter Himalayan winter.

The sum exceeds Pakistan's target of $5.2 billion for recovery and reconstruction after the earthquake which killed more than 73,000 and left hundreds of thousands homeless.

"The results were better than expected... we have received pledges worth $5.827 billion," Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told a news conference after an international donors meeting in Islamabad.

Pakistan had been about $3 billion short of what it needed to rebuild houses, schools, hospitals, water and energy supplies, roads and civic administration.

Aziz said $3.9 billion of the aid pledged was soft loans and $1.9 billion was grants.

The new pledges came after UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned that survivors would die unless relief funds came soon.

"The pitiless Himalayan winter is almost upon us and growing more and more severe every week," Annan told the conference which opened with harrowing footagea of quake damage and survivors.

"We must sustain our efforts to keep people as healthy and as strong as possible until we can rebuild," he told representatives from about 50 donor countries.

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf praised old rival India for its help and appealed to it to seize the opportunity the quake had given the two countries to resolve their dispute over Kashmir, the region hit hardest by the quake.

"Let us together solve the Kashmir dispute once and for all," Musharraf said.

The neighbours have agreed to open five points on their heavily militarised, disputed border in Kashmir to help relief efforts and allow divided families to meet.

Two dozen Kashmiris from the Indian side walked across the heavily militarised frontier yesterday - the first time in nearly 60 years people had been allowed to cross on foot.

The October 8 quake left 500,000 homeless and affected 3.3 million in Pakistani Kashmir and North West Frontier Province. About 1,300 people were killed on the Indian side of Kashmir.

Rich nations and multilateral lenders pledged the lion's share of the extra aid, but even impoverished countries such as Afghanistan and Bangladesh made contributions.

Thanking donors, Musharraf said it was now the turn of Pakistanis, at home and abroad, to ensure aid needs were fulfilled.

Musharraf told the conference of a "lost generation", referring to how the quake destroyed schools, entombing classrooms. The quake killed an estimated 35,000 children. A total of 400,000 homes and over 10,000 schools need to be rebuilt, he said.

Aid agencies say the relief effort is more daunting than for Asia's tsunami. Helicopters are the only way to reach many survivors living high in the mountains.

The Asian Development Bank and World Bank each pledged about $1 billion in financial aid, mostly in soft loans, and the Islamic Development Bank doubled its financial aid to about $500 million for rebuilding infrastructure.

The World Bank said Pakistan's poverty-reduction plan would be at risk without more aid. China and Saudi Arabia together announced soft loans and grants worth more than $600 million.