December 29, 2004
UN launches 130 million dollar tsunami disaster appeal
Agence France Presse (AFP)

The United Nations (news - web sites) on Wednesday appealed for 130 million dollars to jumpstart its relief effort after the tsunami disaster and said more would be required soon.

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The United Nations (news - web sites) on Wednesday appealed for 130 million dollars to jumpstart its relief effort after the tsunami disaster and said more would be required soon.

UN chief disaster relief coordinator Jan Egeland said of the first amount 70 million dollars would go to Sri Lanka, 40 million dollars to Indonesia and 20 million to the Maldive islands.

"We are launching today from the country teams the following appeal for money needed immediately for a total of 130 million dollars," said Egeland.

More than 80,000 people are now known to have been killed by Sunday's giant earthquake and tsunami waves and e The United Nations will make a new appeal, probably for a much bigger sum, on January 6. Egeland said UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (news - web sites), who has returned from his holidays because of the crisis, would make the appeal.

UN Assistant Emergency Relief coordinator, Yvette Stevens, on Tuesday in Geneva that aid needed for the Indian Ocean nations hit by the waves was likely to exceed the record UN appeal of 1.6 billion dollars for Iraq (news - web sites) last year.

Egeland said a conference of donor countries would be held before the January 6 announcement which would aim to raise funds for the relief effort for the first six months of 2005.

He said more than 220 million dollars had already been pledged to the international relief effort, but much of this is going through the Red Cross and non-government groups.

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