MUZAFFARABAD, Dec 30: The head of UN relief operations in Pakistan Andrew Macleod on Friday said the quake-affected region needed more help and urged donors to keep making generous contributions.

Mr Macleod told a press conference here that the world did not fully comprehend the scale and magnitude of the disaster that had befallen Pakistan.

“We are comparing it with the [Dec 26] tsunami but the geographic area here is larger than the area affected by tsunami and the logistics challenge here is also much more difficult,” he said.

“Also they had relatively mild climate to deal with whereas here we are facing a virtual Himalayan climate,” he said.

Mr Macleod recalled that President Gen Pervez Musharraf had sought the help of the United Nations on the day of the earthquake, giving it 3 to 4 weeks extra to preposition food, build shelters and ensure supplies in the mountains.

“But we think we can’t be complacent. We have got to do lot of things to help the population and meet the emergency requirements,” he said.

But together with the Pakistan military, civilian authorities and the international community we will do our best to meet those needs,” he said.

Mr Macleod was all praise for a number of “extremely generous governments” that had been able to donate enormous money to the relief efforts but expressed the hope that their support would continue.

“That having been said, we are not being fully funded. That’s certainly a concern for February and March,” he said.

For the relief plan the UN has requested about $550 million and has got supplies somewhere around $250-300 million worth of that.

“We have to keep on asking the governments to keep on giving generously throughout the winter period.”