UN reaches £295m goal for Pakistan aid

The rush of promised help came after UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, addressing a hastily-called meeting of the General Assembly, urged governments and people to be even more generous than they were in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and this year's Haiti earthquake.

Mr Ban said the floods were a bigger "global disaster" with Pakistan's government now saying more than 20 million people needed shelter, food and clean water.

"This disaster is like few the world has ever seen," Mr Ban told the meeting. "It requires a response to match. Pakistan needs a flood of support."

Before the meeting, donors had given only half the sum the UN had appealed for to provide food, shelter and clean water to up to eight million flood victims over the next three months.

But Mr Ban said all the money was needed now and much more would be needed later.

After listening to speeches by top-level representatives of around 20 countries, Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said he was assured that the 295m goal "is going to be easily met", including "$100m-plus (64m)" from Saudi Arabia.

Aid groups and UN officials had worried about a slow response to the flooding, believing donors who spent heavily on a string of huge disasters in recent years were reluctant to open their wallets yet again.

Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, told reporters before the meeting that he believed that where the tsunami and Haiti catastrophes happened suddenly, "for about 10 days people didn't realise that this wasn't just another flood".

After visiting flood areas with Pakistan's president Asif Ali Zardari, US senator John Kerry warned of extremists who might "exploit the misery of others for political or ideological purpose, and so it is important for all of us to work overtime".

Mr Zardari spoke of militants who might take orphaned children "and train them as the terrorists of tomorrow".

Mr Holbrooke said it was impossible to assess whether al Qaida or others were taking advantage of the floods because "we can't even get in there".

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton announced that her government, already the biggest donor, would contribute an additional 38.5m, bringing its total to more than 96m.

The European Union raised its pledge to more than 115m. In addition, Britain said it would double its contribution to more than 64m and Germany raised its aid to 20.5m.

The floods have affected about one-fifth of Pakistan's territory – an area larger than Italy. Mr Qureshi said every tenth Pakistani had been left destitute.

Councils across England are helping to raise money for the relief effort, the Local Government Association said.

Leeds City Council has donated 10,000 to start an appeal and in Sheffield an appeal coalition has been set up involving the council and Islamic groups and charities.

HUNT FOR CHINA MUDSLIDE VICTIMS

Rescue crews are continuing to search for scores of people left missing and feared dead in south-western China after torrential rains triggered massive mudslides.

Rainfall hampered efforts to find 86 people missing in Puladi township, a remote mountain community in Yunnan province.

Hillsides thundered down on the riverside township on Wednesday, covering all but the tallest buildings with a layer of mud.