International donors have moved with record speed to meet a near $ 1.0 billion appeal for immediate aid to victims of Asia?s tsunami, with over 70 percent already raised, the United Nations said Tuesday.

After more than 80 states met in Geneva to discuss the UN call, as well as longer-term assistance to affected areas around the Indian Ocean, the head of the UN aid effort Jan Egeland said he was confident all the money would be forthcoming.

?This has never happened before that two weeks after a disaster we have $717 million that we can spend on immediate emergency relief effort,? Egeland told a final news conference. Over 150,000 people were killed in the Dec. 26 earthquake off Indonesia and the ensuing giant waves, which left some five million people across the region in need of urgent aid.

?I now expect that we will have 100 percent coverage of the emergency appeal,? he said, adding the UN was putting in place special tracking mechanisms to ensure the money was well spent.

<B>Turning a corner</B>

Until Tuesday, only around $ 300 million had reached the UN but this figure had now risen to $ 717 million, including sums expected to arrive within ?the next few days,? Egeland said. Much of the billions in pledges will be spread out over years, and UN and other agencies need money fast to feed the hundreds of thousands left homeless and prevent disease.

The so-called ?flash? appeal for tsunami-hit states is for $ 977 million and includes over $ 200 million for housing and shelter, a similar amount for food and over $ 120 million for health services for six months.

Past disaster appeals, even those that have drawn big media attention such as the December 2003 earthquake in Bam, Iran, failed to bring in all the money sought.

?It is very important we get money early on... hunger doesn?t wait, disease doesn?t wait. We need to be quicker,? said Egeland, the UN?s emergency relief coordinator.

Sixteen days after the earthquake and tsunami, the international aid effort appeared to have ?turned a corner? with help getting through to most areas, Egeland said. But in the hard-hit Indonesian province of Aceh in northern Sumatra, home to two-thirds of the victims, relief workers faced huge problems in getting supplies in and distributing them.

There have been no reports yet of diseases such as cholera or significant outbreaks of measles, which poses a particular threat to children. But the World Health Organization, which hopes to have an assessment in a couple of days of needs along the western Sumatran coast, says epidemics could add heavily to the death toll if survivors do not get enough clean water and medicines.

Japan tops the UN flash appeal with a $ 250 million contribution, followed by Britain with $ 74 million and Germany at $ 68 million. The appeal has also attracted offers from new donor countries, such as China, which has committed $ 20 million. The United States gave $ 35 million to the appeal, part of its initial overall $ 350 million pledge to the crisis.

At UN insistence, countries promised the funds would be new money and that there would be no switching of aid budgeted for other disasters, as has happened in the past. The UN is keen to avoid any repetition of the alleged mishandling of huge funds involved in its now defunct oil-for-food program for Iraq, and recipient countries promised their spending would be open to scrutiny.

?It is our wish that all funds given to governments and non-government agencies are disclosed and made transparent,? said Sri Lanka?s Finance Minister Sarath Amunugama.

Among UN measures in the works are a way to let the public track every aid dollar via a Web site and the drafting of new rules to protect UN staff whistle-blowers. ?We want to be held accountable as agencies working on the ground and we want also our friends the donors to be held accountable for what they promised and what they actually delivered,? Egeland said

<B>Richard Waddington</B>