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UN member states gather Thursday to boost financial aid for flood-stricken Pakistan amid strong criticism that the global response has fallen short of the overwhelming scale of the disaster.

At least 36 speakers, including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, her Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi and their counterparts from Belgium, Canada and Denmark, are to take the floor at a session of the UN General Assembly, due to open at 3 pm (1900 GMT).

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon

UN chief Ban Ki-moon is to brief the assembly on his visit to Pakistan Sunday and outline the huge humanitarian needs of the 20 million flood victims.

Last week, the world body launched an emergency appeal for 460 million dollars but as of Wednesday funding had reached 54.5 per cent of this target, though that included pledges that were yet to turn into cash.

"There has been an increase in the pace of pledges, but we still need more funds, tents, food, water and medical supplies," UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said Wednesday.

Participants at Thursday's assembly session are to adopt a resolution urging the international community "to extend full support and assistance" to Pakistan in its efforts "to mitigate the adverse impacts of the floods and to meet the medium- and long-term rehabilitation and reconstruction needs."

The text also calls on Mr Ban and UN agencies to step up their efforts to sensitise the international community to "the humanitarian, recovery and reconstruction needs of Pakistan and to mobilise effective, immediate and adequate international support."

Three weeks of torrential rains brought devastating floods that have left at least 1,400 people dead in Pakistan's worst natural disaster, with survivors hitting out at the government's slow response.

The floods wiped out villages, farmland and infrastructure, and OCHA, the United Nations' aid coordination body, said that more than 650,000 homeless families were still without basic shelter.

About six million people are deemed to be at risk of deadly water-borne diseases, with typhoid, hepatitis and cholera major concerns.

The State Department said Clinton would announce a hike in US aid to Pakistan at Thursday's assembly meeting.

The US chief diplomat is also to confer with both Ban and Qureshi.

Washington has now given some 90 million dollars towards flood relief, distributing the funds through the Pakistani authorities or relief organisations on the ground.

France on Wednesday sent a plane loaded with 70 tonnes of aid to Pakistan, including 35 tonnes of emergency equipment -- tarpaulin, cisterns, blankets, jerrycans and kitchen utensils -- as well as 250 kilograms (550 pounds) of water-purifying tablets and 200 makeshift shelters.

Early Thursday, Qureshi, US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke and Rajiv Shah, the administrator for the US Agency for International Development, are meanwhile to discuss Pakistan's flood disaster at an event hosted by the Asia Society in New York.

-AFP/wk