World Offers Aid As A Thank-You

Some Of Poorest Nations Offer Help And Expertise To The U.S.

(CBS/AP)  Prime Minister Khaleda Zia said the assistance from Bangladesh — a major recipient of U.S. economic development aid — was "a token of goodwill and sympathy," spokesman Zahirul Haque said late Monday.

Thailand Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkon said his Southeast Asian country would send 60 doctors and nurses and a shipment of rice to the United States.

The assistance is a "gesture from the heart," Kantathi said, adding that Thailand remembers the help it received from the United States after last year's tsunami that left 228,000 dead or missing across 11 Indian Ocean countries. Thailand's death toll was more than 8,000.

Impoverished Afghanistan, which is still struggling to recover from two decades of war that ended when U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban regime in 2001, has pledged $100,000 for Katrina victims, the government announced.

Neighboring Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in the international fight against terrorism, has offered doctors and paramedics, and Washington "expressed their appreciation for the offer," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Naeem Khan said.

Some 2,700 Pakistanis and Pakistani-Americans were in the regions hit by Katrina, and the Pakistani Embassy in Washington is working with U.S. authorities to provide them with help, Khan said.

In Latin America, Honduras has offered to send 135 flooding and sanitation experts, and Peru has offered to send a medical team of up to 100 members.

A Mexican ship loaded with supplies set sail Monday from the Gulf Coast port of Tampico, and the country has set up consular offices in trailers around the disaster zone to help some of the estimated 140,000 Mexicans who live in the region — including 10,000 in New Orleans.

"Mexico and the United States are nations which are neighbors and friends which should always have solidarity in moments of difficulty," Fox said in a statement.

Even leftist governments often at odds with Washington have offered to chip in. Cuba has offered to send 1,100 doctors and Venezuela offered 1 million barrels of gasoline, $5 million in cash and more than 50 tons of canned food and water.

More traditional, wealthier Asia-Pacific allies also have pledged relief help.

On Tuesday, New Zealand promised $1.4 million in aid and offered to send urban search and rescue specialists and a victim identification team to hurricane-hit states.

Singapore said it sent a fourth military helicopter based in Texas to hard-hit Louisiana, and 45 airmen were participating.

Since the first three CH-47 Chinook helicopters arrived last week, Singaporeans have flown dozens of missions, evacuating several hundred people and transporting thousands of tons of equipment and humanitarian supplies, the Defense Ministry said.