Tuesday, October 18 2005 14:51 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Muzaffarabad: Pakistan today (Oct 18, 2005) launched a major push in its race to reach survivors 10 days after a huge quake, but the United Nation (UN) warned there were not enough tents in the world to protect refugees from the coming winter.

Choppers soared into clear blue skies for a second day running after vital aid flights to cut-off villages were disrupted over the weekend by heavy rain and low clouds over northern Pakistan.

"We are trying to have a massive distribution today," said an army spokesman in Muzaffarabad, Colonel Rana Sajad.

"The aim is to creep forward."

But there was a dire prediction from the United Nations that not enough winter-weight tents existed to shelter survivors from the quake, which the Government says killed more than 41,000 people in Pakistan alone.

"It is fair to say the indication is that there are not enough tents in the world available to support the requirements," Andrew MacLeod, chief operations officer in the UN emergency response centre in Islamabad, told AFP.

UN spokeswoman Amanda Pitt said the supply of tents had been exhausted in Pakistan, which she said was the world's biggest producer of winter-weight tents.

Around 37,000 tents had been delivered as of last night and the Pakistani Government has contributed a further 100,000, Pitt said. "We know that there are approximately another 150,000 in the pipeline but still we believe that it is not going to be enough," she said.

Major Farooq Nasir, another army spokesman in the city, said there were 102 chopper sorties yesterday, the highest number since the quake, and that a similar number was expected today.