International efforts to help up to three million survivors of Pakistan’s devastating earthquake are gathering momentum, but time is short and much more is needed, aid officials said yesterday. “It is very high risk that this population is in,” United Nations Humanitarian coordinator Rashid Khalikov told reporters, estimating rescuers had only five or six weeks to get people under shelter before the harsh Himalayan winter sets in.

“Whether we are able to do it in six weeks or not, we will know only six weeks after today, but we will do our best,” he said as the confirmed death toll in northern Pakistan passed 53,000, with more than 75,000 seriously injured. Those figures are expected to rise substantially, with untold numbers lying buried in the rubble of an estimated 2,000 unreached villages and aid officials fearing a second wave of deaths among the untended injured. “Clearly much more needs to be done,” Khalikov said. More of the vital helicopters needed to reach otherwise inaccessible mountain villages cut off by landslides were arriving - three British Chinook heavy transporters the latest -and more were due.

India and Pakistan also held out hope that new aid routes could be opened across the line dividing disputed Kashmir, the worst-hit area in the Oct. 8 catastrophe. India offered to set up three relief centres along the de facto border in Kashmir, over which the nuclear-armed rivals have fought two of their three wars. Pakistan proposed opening five crossing points to Indian Kashmir, where 1,300 people were killed. But the two governments, did not appear to be in a great rush to deal with the enormously sensitive issue.

UN coordinator Jan Vandermoortele said : “The top priority overall is tents and emergency shelter,” he said. “We need helicopters, a lot of helicopters and all types of helicopters.” An aid official said 540,000 tents were needed but with global supplies limited, there could be a shortage of 200,000 and the U.N. was looking at alternatives.

David BRUNNSTROM