Alan Little reports with the latest pictures

A Red Cross spokesman at the rescue centre in Faizabad said helicopter reconnaissance showed the earthquake also appeared to have set off large numbers of landslides, burying even more villages - and continued heavy rainfall was making rescue efforts more difficult.

The site of the earthquake

BBC correspondent William Reeve, who flew into the affected areas, said survivors speak of a desperate need for food.

A UN spokeswoman in Islamabad said that in addition to providing the survivors with shelter, getting food to them was an increasingly important priority.

Death toll rising

"We went to one village which was completely flattened": William Reeve reports from the affected area

Aid workers say the current estimate of 4,000 deaths may not be the complete figure.

Houses were shaken off mountainsides

Villages have been completely flattened, with houses shaken off mountainsides and sent crashing into the valleys.

International aid agencies have been evacuating the injured by helicopter. They say aftershocks are preventing people from returning home. The threat of disease also looms.

WHO's Dr Mohammed Jamma: "Area is endemic for malaria"

The International Red Cross is hoping to fly out all the injured, but the organisation's co-ordinator, Svante Yngrot, says much depends on the weather.

The earthquake - which measured up to 7.1 on the Richter scale - struck around the towns of Rostaq and Faizabad in an area close to the border with Tajikistan.

Relief workers say it was fortunate that the earthquake struck during the day when many people would have been outside their homes.

Sarah Russell of the UN in Islamabad: Food now a priority

It was more powerful than the earthquake in the same area in February, which killed around 4,000 people.

In that quake, which occurred during the cold winter weather, the tremors were at night when most families were inside.

Fighting to continue

Taleban: priority to defend itself

The warring factions in Afghanistan say they will continue fighting despite a devastating earthquake, which hit the north-east of the country on Saturday. Aftershocks are still preventing people from returning to their homes.

The Islamic Taleban movement, which controls most of the country, accused the opposition alliance of using the earthquake to gain ground with fresh attacks in the north.

The Taleban's Information Minister was quoted as saying the movement's priority was to defend itself against opposition advances.

Relief goods are being transported to the quake area

"We do not intend to send relief goods. We should first defend," the minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, said.

The Taleban lost a key district on Monday in new fighting in the north-east of Afghanistan.

One of the leading opposition commanders, General Abdul Rashid Dostum, said his forces would press ahead with its offensive.