UNITED NATIONS, Jan 4 (AFP) - The United Nations on Tuesday dismissed criticism that the United States was too slow in offering Asian tsunami relief and said the global effort was making "extraordinary progress."
The administration of US President George W. Bush has come under fire for a small initial offer of help that was later pushed up to 350 million dollars, a charge rejected by UN emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland.
"Whatever I request there is a positive and immediate answer. That's why I respectfully disagree with those who say that the US was slow on this," Egeland told a news briefing at UN headquarters in New York.
"The US could not have been more proactive or more active from the UN point of view," he said.
Egeland launched a controversy with initial remarks that many rich nations were "stingy" in giving aid, drawing a testy response from both Bush and US Secretary of State Colin Powell.
The United States then later upped its offer from 35 million to 350 million dollars, and has said that figure could still rise.
Egeland said he was in daily talks with Washington about the relief effort and was waiting to hear when it would make available a C-17 cargo plane to help with the delivery of supplies.
01/04/2005 19:15 GMT - AFP