The winter weather has claimed its first lives, killing three earthquake survivors including two children, the United Nations said.

A three-month-old boy and a young girl both died of pneumonia and a middle-aged man died of hypothermia, Andrew MacLeod, chief operations officer in the UN emergency response centre in Pakistan, told AFP.

More than 100 others in shattered Pakistani Kashmir and in the northwest of the country have been taken to hospitals or field clinics suffering from hypothermia and respiratory diseases, MacLeod said.

"We are going to get a lot more in coming weeks, it is really sad," added MacLeod. "The toll is going to carry on growing."

Airlifts to freezing survivors in Himalayan towns and villages in Pakistan were suspended on Sunday and on Monday morning, while residents said road travel had been hampered on the slippery mountain tracks.

The first major snowfall this season in Indian Kashmir cut off completely one of two areas hard hit by the devastating earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people on October 8, police said.

"The snow has cut off Tangdhar sector," a police spokesman said in the Srinagar, summer capital of Indian Kashmir.

He said more than 30 inches (75 centimetres) of snow had accumulated at Sadna Pass, the 10,000-foot (3,030-metre) crest of the only road between Srinagar and Tangdhar.

Relief helicopters did resume flights later Monday in Pakistani Kashmir, but only after almost two days of valuable relief efforts had been thwarted by the weather.

"Helicopter flights have resumed now. The weather is clear," Major Farooq Nasir, the army's relief operations spokesman in Muzaffarabad -- the devastated capital of Pakistani Kashmir -- told AFP on Monday afternoon.

"All types of available helicopters, including Chinooks, are flying now."

Giant twin-rotor Chinooks from the United States and Britain are among a fleet of around 90 international and Pakistani choppers which are providing a vital air bridge for victims.

The 7.6-magnitude earthquake killed more than 73,000 people in Pakistan and 1,300 in India. It also left more than 3.5 million people homeless.

The UN and aid agencies have repeatedly warned of a possible second wave of deaths from cold, disease, hunger and untreated injuries when the severe Himalayan winter sets in.

"People have blankets, quilts and tarpaulins, but they are definitely feeling cold and are trying to keep themselves warm by burning firewood," Nasir said.

The meteorological department said heavy rain was recorded in Balakot and other parts of northern Pakistan. In the past 24 hours, Muzaffarabad had received 14 millimeters of rain, Rawlakot 17.3 and Balakot 17 millimeters.

"The current weather system is likely to prevail over the next 36 hours when more rain and snow fall is expected on hills in the affected areas," said department official Alam Zeb.

Residents in Muzaffarabad, where tens of thousands are living in camps, said it continued to rain all Sunday night.

"It is very cold today," camp dweller Mohammad Saghir told AFP. "People are disturbed and it has increased our problems."

Survivors have covered their tents with plastic sheets and tried to flush out rain water around their tents. Fearing winter diseases such as pneumonia, parents have confined their children to their tents and lit fires.

Back on the Indian side, President Abdul Kalam visited Tangdhar on Saturday and promised to help desperate villagers.

The snowfall also closed the highway to the frontier districts of Kargil and Leh, the Srinagar police spokesman said, adding the road would not reopen until April.

Tangdhar is normally isolated for two to four months during winter. The government and army stockpile rations and kerosene well in advance.

But thousands of people in tents faced scant protection from the bitter cold as most of the homes in the region were destroyed by the earthquake.

"It will definitely hamper our relief operations," said Akeela Urfi, an official with the voluntary London-based ActionAid group.

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.

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