With the United Nations warning that half a million people are in desperate need of aid, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf proposed that the two sides let Kashmiris freely cross the Line of Control, a ceasefire line set in 1949.

"We have decided now we would allow an amount of people coming from across the Line of Control to our part of Kashmir to meet their relatives and assist in the reconstruction effort," Musharraf said in Muzaffarabad, the ravaged capital of Pakistani Kashmir.

"Why not have many more routes and why not facilitate everyone coming across? The modalities of this needs to be worked out. And we expect a response from the Indian side," Musharraf told reporters.

India welcomed Musharraf's remarks but said it was waiting for "practical details" of the proposal.

"This is in line with India's advocacy of greater movement across the Line of Control for relief work and closer people-to-people contacts," an Indian foreign ministry statement said.

Before the earthquake, India had been skeptical of Musharraf's calls for a "soft border" in Kashmir as it accuses Pakistan of sending across Islamic rebels fighting New Delhi's rule in the Muslim-majority territory.

The October 8 earthquake, which killed more than 41,000 people in Pakistan and 1,300 in India, came amid a peace process between the two countries which have gone to war two times over Kashmir.

But decades of distrust lingers.

Earlier Tuesday, India refused Pakistan's request for helicopters without the pilots. Pakistan said it was too sensitive to allow Indian military personnel in Kashmir.

Pakistan is in desperate need of choppers to reach far-flung Himalayan villages which are only being reached by road 10 days later.

"It has started snowing in the hills, people are suffering from fever and they are likely to die -- we need tents and blankets immediately," said Yussuf, 36, a farmer from Haryal village who trekked down to Ghari Dupatta after his son died in the quake.

The town was made accessible for the first time since the earthquake after army bulldozers reopened a key road from the Pakistani Kashmir capital Muzaffarabad into the devastated Jhelum Valley.

But even with around 100 helicopter sorties Tuesday, the head of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP), James Morris, said that time was running out.

"The aid agencies have managed to give some help to hundreds of thousands of people, but there are an estimated half a million more people out there in desperate need, who no one has managed to reach," Morris said in a statement.

"People don't just need food. First of all they need shelter, blankets and medical assistance -- then food and clean water," Morris said.

There was also a dire prediction from the United Nations that not enough winter tents existed to shelter survivors from the quake.

"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.

Musharraf downplayed the predictions of a second wave of deaths, saying that the relief effort was making steady headway.

"They will suffer but they know how to survive. The people here are very hardy," Musharraf said.

"We will provide shelter to them in the coming two to three weeks. I'm reasonably sure that there will be no such catastrophe of people dying of cold. We will try to avoid that," he said.

But the government launched a new appeal for donations, particularly of tents. Pakistan, the world's largest producer of tents, banned their export and said it would buy tents urgently from India.

related report
India Turns Down Pakistan Request For Copters Without Crew
New Delhi, India (AFP) Oct 18 -- India rejected Tuesday Pakistan's request for helicopters without crews for relief operations, as Islamabad tries to cope with 3.3 million people left homeless by the huge South Asian earthquake.

Analysts are asking if the South Asian rivals are missing an opportunity to join hands after the October 8 quake that hit Kashmir, which is at the heart of their bitter rivalry since 1947.

Pakistan's foreign secretary Riaz Mohammed Khan called his Indian counterpart Shyam Saran "to convey that Pakistan would be willing to receive helicopters from India for relief work but without Indian pilots and crews," said an Indian foreign ministry statement issued overnight.

But Saran indicated that it "would not be possible for India to provide helicopters which are in service with its armed forces without pilots and crews," the statement said.

The two nuclear-armed neighbours began a peace process in January 2004 but deep-seated mutual suspicions clearly remain despite the shared tragedy of the quake that claimed 41,000 lives Pakistan and 1,300 in India.

Pakistan has accepted three large consignments of quake aid from India -- comprising tents, plastic sheets, medicines and food.

And New Delhi did agree to a Pakistani request to use helicopters in a no-fly zone along their highly militarised Line of Control (LoC) or de facto border in quake-hit Kashmir.

But Islamabad refused an Indian offer to send foot patrols into villages falling in Pakistani administered Kashmir, lying close to the LoC in the disputed Himalayan region cut off from Islamabad by the quake.

It also rejected an Indian army claim that troops had crossed over the LoC to rebuild a quake-destroyed bunker on the Pakistani side.

Rahul Bedi, analyst with Jane's Defence Weekly, said it was "shameful that both sides could not sink their differences over Kashmir and join hands to coordinate relief and rescue efforts," on both sides of the LoC.

"Relief operations are being held hostage to bad military relations spanning six decades," he said, adding that it was easier for Pakistan to deny Indian troops had helped Pakistani soldiers.

"They have to deny something like this for the sake of their own credibility. It is easier to accept aid -- tents and biscuits -- which are faceless than say Indian troops helped their men."

Foreign affairs commentator K. Subrahmanyam blamed Pakistan for not grasping India's helping hand for quake victims and giving peace in the region a push.

It was a "pity" Pakistan had refused Indian foot patrols to help locate casualties and survivors in Pakistan administered Kashmir, he said.

"That could have saved many, many lives. India could have reached those villages faster," he said.

"Had Islamabad allowed that, it would have demolished the image the Pakistanis have created about India amongst their people and the Kashmiris."

Subrahmanyam noted that US Chinooks helping deliver supplies to far flung regions in Pakistan were flown by American crews.

"No country will give helicopters without their own crews. The Pakistani demand is preposterous. That whole region (Pakistan-administered Kashmir) is in shambles. So what is there to spy on?" he said.

But former Indian foreign secretary Krishnan Raghunath said the quake had brought about a realisation that "tragedies like this go beyond (manmade) boundaries."

"Both sides need to be reasonable," he said.

Another analyst, C. Raja Mohan, saw "tacit cooperation" between India and Pakistan, adding: "This is because of the peace process." "The old mindset is still there. But there is goodwill and both sides are doing things (together)," he said.

Columnist Prem Shankar Jha noted that Pakistan's decision "to put politics ahead of humanity" seemed "heartless and discouraging" but was also "understandable."

"The fact that Pakistan has accepted aid -- the first time it has done so since 1971 -- is far more important," he noted in the weekly Outlook magazine.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

Related Links
TerraDaily
Search TerraDaily
Subscribe To TerraDaily Express

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only