Nations Respond To Quake Tragedy

Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf appealed to international community for quake relief.

"We do seek international assistance. We have enough manpower, but we need financial support," Musharraf said. He said supplies were needed "to reach out to the people in far-flung and cut-off areas."

Help, it seems, is on the way.

Shocked nations sent help Sunday for quake-devastated Pakistan, with China and Japan dispatching emergency teams of rescuers and relief officials.

The 7.6-magnitude quake that struck Pakistan-controlled Kashmir on Saturday killed more than 18,300 people, with totals expected to surpass 25,000, the vast majority of them in Pakistani territory but with India also reporting several hundred deaths and Afghanistan reporting one girl killed.

China sent a 49-member rescue team including earthquake experts, army engineers as well as health officials and police, the official Xinhua News Agency said Sunday.

A Japanese disaster relief team of 50 officials was due to land late Sunday in Islamabad to help rescue operations in the hardest-hit parts of Pakistan, according Foreign Ministry official Hisanobu Mochizuki. A medical team will follow on Monday, he said.

Tokyo also will provide $221,000 worth of supplies such as blankets, tents, and water purifiers to Pakistan, the ministry said.

U.S. President George W. Bush offered condolences, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States was ready to help.

The Australian government pledged $387,673 for medical and relief assistance.

"We offer Australia's condolences to the families of the victims and continue to closely monitor the situation and stand ready to consider additional requests for assistance as further needs become known," senior lawmaker Bruce Billson said in a statement.

Thailand expressed "deep sorrow" and pledged $100,000 in assistance to help victims in earthquake-ravaged parts of Pakistan.

Russia planned to send a plane carrying emergency workers and equipment to Islamabad from an airfield near Moscow on Sunday afternoon, a duty officer at the Emergency Situations Ministry said.

The ITAR-Tass news agency reported that the plane would carry 30 rescuers headed by a high-level ministry official, as well as four sniffer dogs trained to find people under debris.

The Japanese Red Cross Society pledged $132,000 in cash for emergency aid and will also send its own medical team to Islamabad.

The Malaysian Red Crescent is sending an eight-member relief team to Pakistan as soon as they receive clearance from Islamabad, that organization's emergency response chairman Selva Jothi said.

The Malaysian team will be joined by Red Cross and Crescent workers from other Southeast Asian nations, including Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore, said Selva, who is also the organization's regional coordinator.

The Malaysian government also was expected to send an emergency response team, he said.

Four Chinese citizens working on a dam project in northern Pakistan were injured in the quake, the China Youth Daily newspaper reported Sunday, citing the Chinese Embassy. One of the workers was in a coma, it said.

Another Chinese citizen working in northern Pakistan was missing, it said, without providing details.

On Saturday, Chinese President Hu Jintao sent condolences to Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, expressing "deep grief" over those killed in the disaster, Xinhua said.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun on Sunday also sent a message to Musharraf, offering condolences for the casualties and damages by the earthquake, his office said.

South Korea is also reviewing how to assist Pakistan's relief efforts, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The European Union said Saturday that humanitarian agencies were having difficulty reaching the disaster zone but urged them to go and said the EU would provide financing.

Turkey said it was sending search and rescue teams and military planes loaded with supplies. Germany pledged $61,000 in emergency aid.

An eight-member U.N. team of top disaster coordination officials was due to arrive in Islamabad on Sunday to plan the global body's response.

"We know that every hour counts in an earthquake of this magnitude and the United Nations is ready to assist the country affected in any possible manner," the U.N. emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland said in a statement from U.N. Headquarters.