World responds to New Orleans catastrophe

Donations to Hurricane Katrina relief poured in from around the world, with Kuwait offering $500m (€397.4m) and other Mideast countries offering aid and condolences despite widespread opposition to US policies in the area.

But the al-Qaida in Iraq group, led by the Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, called the devastation across the US Gulf Coast region God’s retribution on America.

The European Union and NATO also stepped up to provide aid following rare requests for help from Washington, while the 22-member Arab League urged countries across the Middle East to “extend aid to the US to face the exceptional humane circumstances.”

Spain, Belgium, Britain, Germany and Italy announced they had started or were about to send aid and experts to the US to help with the logistical operation of getting help to hurricane survivors.

Britain’s Ministry of Defence said yesterday that the government would send 500,000 ration packs. Germany and Italy sent flights of supplies, including food rations, bed supplies, inflatable dinghies and water purifiers.

The $500m (€397.4m) offer by Kuwait – which owes its 1991 liberation from seven months of occupation by Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi army to a US-led coalition - is the largest to date, surpassing the $100m (€79.5m) pledged by Qatar, another US ally in the Mideast.

“It’s our duty as Kuwaitis to stand by our friends to lighten the humanitarian misery and as a pay back for the many situations during which Washington helped us through,” Kuwait’s energy minister, Sheik Ahmed Fahd Al Ahmed Al Sabah, said in a statement.

Another close US ally, the United Arab Emirates, is sending tents, clothing, food and other aid.

The US enjoys close relations with most Gulf states, particularly Kuwait, which was a launch pad for the 2003 invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam, and Qatar, a base for the US military in the war’s initial stages.

But al-Zarqawi’s group released an Internet statement saying “God’s great wrath has hit the head of the oppressors where their dead are in thousands and their losses in billions.”

Bitter US foes Iran and North Korea – which Washington pressured over their respective nuclear programs – offered to help rescue efforts, and Syria - another long-time opponent – was among numerous Middle Eastern states offering condolences.

And Arab League chief Amr Moussa said the Arab world should support the US, which “always expresses solidarity with nations that face natural catastrophes and extends most of the aid they receive.”

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a long-time opponent of the Bush administration, said yesterday that he had offered one million barrels of petrol and $5m (€3.97m), but criticised the US government for failing to evacuate the victims before disaster struck.

“The rich were able to leave, by their own means. It was the poor that remained there,” the leftist leader said on his weekly television and radio show.

The United Nations said yesterday the US had accepted its offer of UN assistance and expertise.

“A small UN co-ordination team is in Washington now consulting with government officials on how best the UN can complement the US’ own emergency efforts,” said a statement from the UN spokesman.

The Paris-based International Energy Agency has also said its 26-member nations would release the equivalent of two million barrels of oil per day from strategic reserves.