NATO to meet after calls for huge quake airlift

[tocqueville]

By David Brunnstrom
1 hour, 56 minutes ago

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - NATO was meeting on Friday to consider calls for a massive airlift to help quake survivors in Pakistani Kashmir, where U.N. aid officials report a logistical nightmare worse than the Asian tsunami.

Jan Egeland, U.N. emergency relief coordinator, will make his case for boosting NATO's aid role after the devastating October 8 quake, which killed more than 50,000 people, at a Council meeting of the military alliance in Brussels, officials said.

"You must rest assured that NATO fully realises the gravity of the situation and ... NATO will act accordingly," NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said.

NATO chiefs acknowledged on Wednesday the alliance is short of the helicopters urgently sought by Pakistan to reach remote areas. Up to two million Pakistanis remain without shelter.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051020/ts_nm/quake_subcontinent_dc