But while efforts were clearly being made, the scale of the operation was still insufficient.

"We need food, senores!" a hundred-strong crowd in the worst-hit town of Pisco yelled, addressing themselves at Peruvian President Alan Garcia and his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe who were inspecting the destruction.

"We are hungry! There's no water!"

The heads of state did not respond, and after giving media interviews they drove off in their convoy.

Dotted around the town, though, several organizations -- both foreign and Peruvian -- did their best to help.

In a dusty street framed by high mounds of rubble that used to be homes, a compound guarded by armed police handed out donated food, clothing and water that arrived in sporadic deliveries from across the country.

Outside, a couple of hundred people pressed forward but did not try to force their way past volunteers.

"People have no food, no water, nothing. Children are dying of hunger," said one man, after pulling down a scarf protecting his mouth from the choking dust.

The volunteers manning the distribution point were giving priority to children, dozens of whom walked away with food in their arms and bewildered smiles.

Manuel Corrales Arana, who arrived with two tonnes of sugar, rice and water donated by the school in Lima where he works, said all of Peru was rallying to the non-stop appeals being made on national radio and television.

"Everybody is giving everything they have for this place, for Pisco, Ica and the region," he said.

The town's stadium has been taken over by 29 US and Honduran military personnel who were working a joint operation to provide basic medical care to hundreds of families. US military surgeons had also set up a field operating theater at the airport.

Almost all the trauma injuries had now been looked after, but the danger of disease -- especially diarrhea and parasites -- was high for the high numbers of homeless forced to camp in the streets and parks, explained their spokesman, US Senior Airman Shaun Emery.

He added that teams from several different countries were now active on the ground, cooperating in their operations providing help to the region.

Emery also said the magnitude of the devastation was hard to fathom.

"I've seen on the news about Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters, but I've never seen anything like this -- you drive down the roads and you see people literally picking up pieces of their houses and putting them back together again," he said.

A Peruvian man waiting for treatment with his wife and three children, Ronaldo Cuba Sifuentes, said all his family was suffering from breathing difficulties from the dust and stomach upsets. They were quickly seen and given medicine from a pharmacy set up in what was normally the shelter for the sports stadium's reserve bench.

"It's very good the US soldiers are here ... They are very welcome," he said.

Across from Pisco's central square, the shattered church which collapsed in Wednesday's quake, killing 160 worshipers, served as a symbol for both the destruction that had befallen the town -- and the hope that it would pull through.

One of the church's priests, Father Alfonso Berrade, exited the crumpled facade clutching a wooden Jesus on a cross and a plastic bag with a few other recovered items.

"A church isn't walls -- it's people," he told AFP, adding: "As long as the church is alive in the town, there is hope."

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