UK quake help 'will keep rising'

British rescuers are searching in affected areas A rescuer's story

The government has so far committed more than £500,000 in relief funds to earthquake-hit South Asia, with a "lot more" to come, said Hilary Benn.

The international development secretary said the initial spending had included chartering a plane for rescue teams and helping pay for medical kits.

UK rescue workers have been helping search for survivors of the disaster, thought to have killed at least 19,000.

The Queen and Tony Blair have sent messages of support and sympathy.

Mr Blair said the number of people in Britain with roots in the affected region made the tragedy "even harder to bear".

Helicopter plea

In a telephone call to Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf on Sunday evening Mr Blair reiterated his support and concern, having earlier said Britain stood ready to provide more assistance.

A Downing Street spokesman said Gen Musharraf was "very appreciative" of the help the UK had provided so far.

The 7.6-magnitude quake hit Pakistan, Afghanistan and northern India at about 0850 local time (0450 BST) on Saturday, wiping out several villages in Kashmir and injuring more than 42,000 people.

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Two aid flights have left the UK and the government has pledged funds as they are needed, plus medics, staff and aid workers.

Mr Benn said stocks of blankets and tents and sleeping mats were ready to go and would be passed on once the authorities there had determined where they would be needed.

The UK had also put out a plea among EU members for badly needed helicopters, and was assessing what contribution Britain could make, he added.

An initial pledge of £100,000 from the UK was "petty cash" for emergency purchases for relief teams flying to the region, said a spokeswoman for the Department for International Development (DfID).

She said a further £230,000 was being spent on the deployment, support and return of search and rescue teams, and that £130,000 was going into the World Health Organisation's appeal for health and trauma kits.

A "substantial" contribution to a European immediate response fund took the UK's relief to more than £500,000 in the last 24 hours, she said.

One UK rescue team focused on the collapsed Margalla Tower

"We will almost certainly see Britain's pledged relief funds rise in the coming days as more information about what is needed on the ground comes in, and more requests for funds are made," she added.

A UK team has been involved in rescue efforts at a collapsed apartment block in Islamabad, from which five survivors have been pulled.

John Holland from Rapid UK told BBC News 24 his team had pulled people out alive on Sunday and were hopeful of rescuing more.

"The type of collapse that we've got here, we actually believe there's more people to be pulled out alive. So we're going to work day and night until this building's been searched."

'People's resilience'

Also in the region is a 14-strong team from the Scotland-based International Rescue Corps, which is heading to the hard-hit rural parts of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Teams from Grampian, Lincolnshire, Greater Manchester and Lancashire fire services have also gone to the area.

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The British High Commissioner in Islamabad Mark Lyall Grant said the British relief effort was one of the largest contributions and among the first on the scene.

Other than the teams working in Islamabad a further 60 rescuers had arrived and were being sent up to the epicentre of the disaster, he said.

Pakistan's High Commissioner in London Dr Maleehra Lodhi told the BBC she admired the strength and generosity of spirit of those people in affected areas.

"The resilience of the Pakistani people, of the Kashmiri people, the fact that virtually every Pakistani citizen wants to contribute in whatever way he or she can, I think is giving a great deal of encouragement to our civilian and military authorities who are out there trying to save lives."

British charities have launched appeals and the Disasters Emergency Committee will meet to discuss the disaster on Monday.

Four of my housemates are from Muzaffarabad and every single one of them has lost a loved one in this tragic earthquake Muhammad, London Are you affected?

Britons looking for missing relatives have begun arriving in the area, while many thousands in the UK await news.

Ishfaq Ahmed, chief executive of the Kashmir International Relief Fund, London, said the feeling among Kashmiri communities in Britain was "total devastation".

One man living in Scotland said his wife, two children and family in Abbottabad, around 75 miles (120km) north west of Islamabad, had survived but lost their house, land and orchid farm - the family's source of income.

They fled to stay with relatives in Rawalpindi, but have been so traumatised they have found it difficult to talk on the phone, he said.

"This thing scared the hell out of them. My father is head of the whole family, I have never seen him in such a state. Yesterday he could not even talk to me.

"I have no idea what they are going to do, at the moment I am just trying to console them."