States Failing to Pay Tsunami Pledges

Almost two-thirds of the money promised by governments to help the millions of people affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami has not yet been received by the UN, confirming the fear that many countries would try to wriggle out of their commitments.

Margareta Wahlstrom, the secretary general Kofi Annan's special envoy, said the UN's appeal for an urgent $977m (£525m) to fund the first six months of emergency relief work had been met mostly by written commitments, and only $360m had so far been received.

Speaking yesterday in Geneva, Ms Wahlstrom urged governments to pay up.

"This is our key message to government donors: please convert your pledges into hard cash in the bank," she said.

"It's only cash in the bank that makes it possible to do work on the ground".

British charities, which have been overwhelmed by the unprecedented public response, amounting so far to£ 250m, were shocked by the inaction of the governments.

A spokesman for Oxfam said: "When the public pledged their funds, these were delivered in hours, yet governments have had over a month and far less than 50% has been delivered.

"The public need to keep the pressure on to make sure the rhetoric is converted into hard cash."

Ms Wahlstrom praised governments for being generous with money for food, health and children, but accused them of not finding the cash for temporary housing and the reconstruction of local industries, which have had only 35-50% funding. "It's a very laborious process to get to 100% of the appeal," she said.

The UN said in the first week of the disaster that promises of aid from rich countries to cope with the affects of the tsunami, which directly and indirectly killed 283,000 people, might not be fulfilled.

This was because some countries used dubious methods, including "double accounting", to appear more generous than they really were, it said.

And many simply reneged on their humanitarian pledges, promising money but not delivering it.

Ms Wahlstrom said bureaucratic regulations might make it it difficult to transform government pledges into money.

"It has partly to do with how governments take decisions, and then once they have taken the decisions, how to implement the decisions."

Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said the problem was that even though government pledges might be confirmed, there might be a significant time lapse before the countries came up with the money.