U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday warned of a "gigantic task" ahead for quake recovery efforts in northern Pakistan, while aid groups warned that emergency help is urgently needed even as donor nations gather to discuss long-term reconstruction. Visiting families sheltering in tents inside the quake zone, Annan said he would renew funding appeals at Saturday's donor conference for what he called "one of the largest humanitarian tragedies we've had to deal with." "It is really a gigantic task that we have ahead of us," Annan said, saying difficulties posed by winter's arrival and the logistics of reaching mountain villages made the disaster comparable to last December's South Asian tsunami that killed 180,000 people. Annan said he hoped conference delegates would "give willingly and generously." The Oct. 8 magnitude-7.6 quake left more than 87,000 dead, mostly in Pakistani Kashmir. About 3 million people lost their homes, leaving hundreds of thousands living in flimsy tents and an unknown number with no shelter at all. Accompanied by Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Annan visited families and observed vaccination work at the Thuri Park tent camp that houses 2,000 people in quake-hit Muzaffarabad.
