Nearly $500m raised for Pakistan, meeting UN appeal

The Financial Tracking Service, a UN database that aims to track all donations, showed that $490.7m had been donated.

WASHINGTON:

Donors have come forward with nearly 500 million dollars to meet an emergency appeal for flood-hit Pakistan, with the United States, Saudi Arabia and Britain leading the way, figures showed on Friday.

The Financial Tracking Service, a UN database that aims to track all donations, showed late Friday that $490.7 million in funding has come in for Pakistan's floods, with another $325 million promised. The total tops the $460 million sought in a UN emergency appeal.

The United Nations on Thursday led a meeting to raise support for Pakistan after the worst floods in its history -- a disaster which UN chief Ban Ki-moon called a "slow-motion tsunami." The United States has been by far the largest contributor to Pakistani relief, offering more than 20 per cent of total funds at $102 million and also pledging another $60 million, the database showed.

Saudi Arabia and Britain both contributed around $65 million, with promises to offer another $40 million or more each. The European Union and Australia also figured among leading donors. Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who represented his country at the UN meet, said Friday that it was important to look not only at emergency funding but at long-term needs.

"I would say the initial response was slow because the world was not aware of the magnitude of the challenge. But now I think it is filtering in," Qureshi told the "PBS NewsHour" on US public television. "But that's only the beginning. We have to look at the recovery and the rehabilitation and reconstruction costs as well," he said.