Authorities in Pakistani-administered Kashmir said the new clinics, which offer free treatment, would nearly double the number of beds which were available before the disaster.

"We have started rebuilding 61 basic health units and seven rural health centres with pre-fabricated materials in Muzaffarabad and the Neelum valley," local health chief Sardar Mahmood Ahmed Khan told AFP, referring to the capital of Pakistani Kashmir and a valley leading out of the city.

Groups including the United Nations Children's Fund and the UN Population Fund were helping the government with the work.

The earthquake killed more than 73,000 people in Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir and seriously injured about the same number, many of whom still require treatment for broken limbs and other problems.

Around 3.5 million others lost their homes and the United Nations has warned that hundreds of thousands of people living in tents are at risk of falling ill during the bitter Himalayan winter.

Heavy rain and snow pelted the region at the weekend and the UN cancelled all aid flights for three days. They restarted on Wednesday.

Khan said that before the quake Muzaffarabad had 400 hospital beds but now more than 700 were available, some of them at field hospitals set up by local and foreign aid agencies in remote areas.

They would provide treatment for around 200,000 survivors, he said.

Pakistan ranks near the bottom of international rankings in public spending on health and the disaster shattered the infrastructure in one of its poorest -- and now most needy -- regions.

The UN has said that about 1,000 health facilities were destroyed by the 7.6-magnitude quake on October 8.

Separately, public works officials said 10 bulldozers and a similar number of excavators donated by Japan were helping to clear landslide-blocked roads.

Meteorologists Thursday forecast more rain and snow in mountain areas.

"All quake-hit areas are still in the grip of a dying out westerly wave, expected to produce more rain and light to moderate snow over the mountains above 6,000 feet (1,828 meters) during the next two to three days," Pakistan's meteorological department said on its website.

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