JAKARTA, Jan 6 (AFP) - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan made a "flash appeal" Thursday for nearly a billion dollars in immediate emergency aid for countries stricken by the Asian tsunami disaster, which he called the worst humanitarian catastrophe in the history of the world body.
Addressing a one-day summit of world leaders called to plan and coordinate what will ultimately amount to billions of dollars in relief and long-term reconstruction aid for the Indian Ocean region, Annan said 977 million US dollars were needed immediately in cash to help five million survivors.
"For the United Nations, it is the largest natural disaster the organisation has had to respond to on behalf of the world community, in the 60 years of our existence," Annan said.
While more than 30 governments, as well as corporations and private individuals, have already pledged several billion dollars in assistance for the nations worst hit by the December 26 earthquake and tsunamis that killed at least 146,000 people, Annan said these promises needed to be made good.
"Many of the pledges have come to us in cash and in kind. We need the rest of the pledges to be converted into cash quickly," he said.
"We also need more people and more materiel to get the aid to those who are most in need, often in remote areas."
Annan said the immediate cash aid was needed to "set the stage for efforts in the longer term, as we move from saving lives to recovery and reconstruction."
Thursday's meeting brought together leaders from international organisations and 26 nations, including US Secretary of State Colin Powell, the prime ministers of Australia, China and Japan, Southeast Asian chiefs and representatives of the European Union, World Bank and IMF.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia, the worst hit nation with more than 94,000 fatalities, gratefully welcomed the presence of so many leaders at a conference called only days ago.
"This means that you care, and you care deeply," he said.
But while acknowledging the massive outpouring of generosity from people and government's worldwide, Yudhoyono said "more needs to be done (and) we need to do it very urgently, and we need to it collaboratively."
"Our response to this unprecedented catastrophe must be equally unprecedented," he said.
The Indonesian president also stressed the need for a major UN role in coordinating the international aid effort.
Some of the main government aid pledges so far have skirted the world body, with Australia notably announcing on the eve of the summit 764 million US dollars in aid and interest-free loans for Indonesian reconstruction on a purely bilateral basis.
Yudhoyono called for Annan to personally appoint a special representative to oversee and coordinate aid disbursement and reconstruction work in affected countries.
"By cooperating in the spirit of solidarity, we protect ourselves not only from the fury of natural disasters, but also from the folly of human conflict," he said.
"That is, in the long term, the only way that the human race can survive."
After the opening speeches, leaders from the 11 Indian Ocean nations hit by the tsunamis briefed their counterparts on the destruction and loss of life wrought in their countries, with the Indonesians showing a graphic video of people killed and injured in worst-hit Aceh province.
The waves destroyed virtually everything along vast coastal stretches of Indonesia's Sumatra island, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indian islands, wiping out whole communities in some areas and leaving others to cope with large numbers of orphans and the loss of doctors, teachers and local leaders.
While Annan and Yudhoyono both said the exact death toll from the disaster would never be known, with thousands of bodies likely to remain missing, the UN chief said the number killed would exceed 150,000.
Hundreds of thousands more lost their homes or livelihood and millions were affected by the disaster.
The leaders were also to discuss setting up a tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean to avert a similar catastrophe in future.
Such a warning system exists in the Pacific, where tsunamis are more frequent, and experts say the same kind of alert network in the Indian Ocean could have saved tens of thousands of lived on December 26.
Indonesia made a big show of security for the summit with police and soldiers lining roads throughout central Jakarta, where Islamic militants linked to Al-Qaeda have carried out a number of deadly bombings in recent years.
But security around the convention center where the summit was held was loose, with few checks on the identity of entrants to the venue.
01/06/2005 04:10 GMT - AFP