Helping Hands For Pakistan

Nations Offering Money, Aid, And Condolences

(CBS/AP)  Governments and aid agencies around the globe deployed emergency rescue and medical teams, pledged money and sent aid and condolences to earthquake-ravaged Pakistan on Sunday as the country's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf appealed to the world for help.

The 7.6-magnitude quake on Saturday in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir killed more than 20,000 people, mostly in Pakistan-controlled territory in the volatile region. One Pakistani official said the death toll exceeds 30,000. India also reported several hundred deaths, and Afghanistan said one girl was killed.

Musharraf said Pakistan needed medicine, tents, cargo helicopters and financial assistance to help survivors, the news agency Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

"We do seek international assistance. We have enough manpower, but we need financial support," Musharraf said.

The European Union on Sunday committed $4.4 million in primary emergency relief.

"We have a duty to get help as quickly as possible to the people whose lives have been turned upside down," EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel said. "Europe's solidarity with the countries and people who have been struck by this tragedy is concretely reflected in our prompt decision to release humanitarian funds."

The United States and the governments of Japan, Thailand, Germany, Britain, the Czech Republic, and Australia on Sunday pledged $2.46 million in aid. China has promised $6.2 million, according to Islamabad.

The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad said it would provide $100,000 in emergency relief funds, and that the U.S. military had offered to help.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw pledged $176,150 and said the government planned to send 60 medics, emergency workers and foreign office staff.

Many countries quickly assembled aid and readied it for transport to the mountainous region, where landslides are reported to be making access extremely difficult.