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18, 000 Perish in South Asian Quake

More than 18,300 people are estimated to have died in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan as a result of Saturday's magnitude 7.6 earthquake. Those numbers are expected to rise once remote areas of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir and the country's North-West Province are reached. Communication to many of those areas was cut off because of the quake, and landslides have rendered roads inaccessible.

The quake hit Saturday at 8:50 a.m. (11:50 p.m. ET Friday). Its epicenter was about 60 miles north-northeast of Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. It was felt in major cities, including Islamabad and Lahore, and India's capital of New Delhi.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has described the quake as a "test of the nation".

Help Offered

Both the US President Bush and UN chief Kofi Annan have expressed their concern over the disaster. "The people of the United States offer our deepest sympathies for the loss of life and destruction," said George W Bush in a statement. Mr Annan said he was "deeply saddened by the loss of life" and announced that the UN was sending a team to co-ordinate relief efforts.

UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the government was sending $177,000, along with 60 medical staff, emergency workers and foreign office staff. The US has promised $100,000.

Britain, Japan, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates were among other countries dispatching immediate help, as the sudden official jump in the death toll on Sunday from less than 2,000 to more than 18,000 created a sense of urgency.

The United Nations said it was in contact with Pakistan, India and Afghanistan to help after Saturday's 7.6 magnitude earthquake, South Asia's strongest for 100 years. The Swiss government put an aircraft on standby to fly a U.N. disaster and coordination team to Pakistan, the worst hit of the three countries, where officials said some 40,000 people had been injured by the quake.

Political tensions between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region took a back seat as Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called President Pervez Musharraf and offered help. Musharraf thanked him for his offer. The two nations have fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir since independence from British rule in 1947.

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