The United Nations will launch a major air operation this week to ferry food and other supplies to earthquake survivors high in Pakistan's mountains in a frantic bid to beat the problems of winter.
Britain has supplied three Chinook transport helicopters that will fly up to 200 tonnes of supplies a day into the mountains for five days from tomorrow, said senior UN official Pat Duggan.
"It's a huge acceleration in our ability to cover the needs in these areas," Duggan told Reuters in Muzaffarabad, the ruined capital of Pakistani Kashmir, on Monday. "The real priority is the highlands.
The aim is to get their food and shelter needs in as fast as we possibly can before winter sets in and then avoid a flow of people down the hill." The October 8th quake killed more than 73,000 people in Pakistan, most of them in Pakistani Kashmir.
About 3 million people were affected and many are still in need of emergency assistance. Cut off by landslides, the Neelum Valley - home to around 150,000 people - is the most pressing problem area and the focus of this week's airlift.
Fifteen people were killed in three accidents on mountain roads destroyed or damaged by landslides since Sunday, underlining the dangers of travelling in the quake zone.
The United Nations and other relief agencies say communities need shelter and food supplies by the start of December, when bad weather is expected to severely hamper road and air transport.
International agencies are clamouring for funds to pay for the relief work and Pakistan is hosting a donors' conference on November 19th that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is due to attend.
On Monday, US goodwill envoy Karen Hughes and Christina Rocca, assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs, took three of America's top business leaders to Muzaffarabad to see first hand the urgent need for more aid.