Disease threat looms in Pak disaster zone

Troops and authorities were trying for a fourth day to get medicine, shelter, food and drinking water to desperate people in Baluchistan province, where some 250 alone have died -- including 80 killed by a burst dam.

Another 150 to 200 people were now known to have perished in avalanches and heavy snow at the other end of the country in northern Pakistan, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told reporters in Islamabad.

"The entire machinery of the government has mobilised," he said after overflying part of snowbound North West Frontier Province to survey the devastation.

Around 2,000 people are missing and tens of thousands have been left homeless throughout Pakistan. Some 40,000 lost their dwellings in Baluchistan alone, according to officials.

"We are worried about the spread of disease in the area and officials are considering taking immediate measures to stop any possible outbreak," Raziq Bugti, media consultant to the chief minister of Baluchistan, told AFP.

The World Health Organisation has also warned of possible dangers from infectious and waterborne diseases.

"Over the next few days we may see the emergence of serious health problems among the population in the affected areas," its country director for Pakistan Khalif Bile said Sunday.

President Pervez Musharraf, who flew over Baluchistan on Saturday and announced compensation for all bereaved families, insisted that the damage in that province had been exaggerated.

"I would like to give a correct picture of what has happened. There was no... flood there except the water kept collecting and people started shifting to higher grounds," Musharraf told state television late Sunday.