QUETTA, Pakistan, July 2, 2007 (AFP) - The United Nations and other agencies offered aid and helicopters to Pakistan Monday after floods unleashed by a cyclone and days of torrential rain left 1.5 million people devastated. More than 600 have been killed across South Asia as the annual summer monsoon brings downpours and extreme weather, with at least 117 deaths in southwestern Pakistan during the past week. Swathes of the normally desert Pakistani province of Baluchistan remain under water following the impact of Cyclone Yemyin last Tuesday plus heavy weekend monsoon rains. Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said Pakistan had not sought international help but that the UN had offered helicopters and medicines. "We have been approached by a number of countries, the UN particularly, regarding the kind of assistance that we require in the relief efforts," Aslam told a weekly briefing.

The last time Pakistan needed international aid was during the October 2005 South Asian earthquake, which killed 73,000 people and left more than three million homeless. Helicopters were still plucking cyclone survivors from their rooftops or dropping food to cut-off mud-brick villages on Monday, while other victims are living in camps, television footage showed. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was quoted by state media after a trip to the disaster zone on Sunday as inviting international agencies and foreign countries to help the relief effort. Provincial relief commissioner Khuda Bakhsh Baloch said flash floods at the weekend in Baluchistan's Khuzdar area killed at least 35 people, while other bodies had been found, bringing the toll for the week to at least 110. More than 200,000 are homeless while 1.5 million were affected, he said. "All these figures are likely to go up," Baloch said. "We don't know many people have been swept away and how many villages are wiped out. We have still not reached some far-flung areas." Officials later said another seven bodies had been found. Home secretary for Baluchistan Tariq Ayub later told a press conference in Quetta that about 250 people were still unaccounted for. "We have recieved reports from families and relatives that some 250 people including women and children were missing," Ayub said. Two people made homeless by floods died of snake bites in the neighbouring province of Sindh, where several inland areas have been completely cut off by floods, officials said.

More than 230 people were killed in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, on June 23 in a huge thunderstorm. About 40 people also died in rain in northwestern Pakistan last week. In India, at least 43 people died over the weekend and nearly 5,000 were evacuated as heavy monsoon rains accompanied by fierce winds lashed western India's Maharashtra state and left some areas badly flooded, officials said. Half the victims were washed away by floods while the rest died in house collapses or were electrocuted. Thirteen of the deaths were in the state capital Mumbai, India's financial hub, officials said, appealing to residents of the sprawling metropolis of 15 million people to stay inside until the rains eased. International and domestic flights to and from Mumbai were also disrupted. The rains eased Sunday, although several parts of the city were still flooded Monday. Mumbai received 243 millimetres (9.5 inches) of rain between Friday and Saturday. Another 144 Indians were killed by rains a week ago. Last week nearly 60 people were killed in floods in Afghanistan. str-sz-mz/mmg/adm