UN warns it could run out of money for quake relief

THE UN warned last night it will run out of money and be forced to ground helicopters delivering earthquake relief supplies to northern Pakistan unless donors come through with the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to see 2.3 million hungry people through the winter.

UN humanitarian co-ordinator in Pakistan, Jan Vandemoortele, also urged India and Pakistan to open the disputed Kashmir border, saying this would help the relief effort if not solve logistical challenges posed by the Himalayan terrain.

Indian officials were set to arrive in Pakistan for talks on letting Kashmiris cross the so-called Line of Control a particularly sensitive issue for New Delhi because of a 16-year Islamic insurgency in India's part of Kashmir by militants seeking the territory's independence or merger with Pakistan.