The town hall in Auvers-sur-Oise will this week take in food, clothing and money for the thousands of people left homeless from the quake that struck Friday, mayor Jean-Pierre Bequet said. The aid will be handed over to the Red Cross for transport to Iran, he said.

Exiled leaders of the People's Mujahedeen who have set up their headquarters in the suburb are jointly organising the effort, Bequet said.

The group, which is on EU and US lists of terrorist organisations, made news in June when the wife of its chief, Maryam Radjavi, was briefly detained.

Several Iranians who saw her as the "future president of Iran" set fire to themselves in Europe to press for her release.

The People's Mujahedeen issued a statement Sunday calling the quake a "national disaster" and accusing Iran's Islamic clergy leaders for taking no measures to prevent the high death toll, which on Monday was approaching

A UN appeal for donations was also met by the Paris-based humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders, which said it would send a plane with 20 tonnes of aid to Iran late Tuesday. The aircraft would also carry a medical team of dozen people which would join an advance group sent Sunday.

A similar non-governmental organisation, La Chaine de l'Espoir, said it, too, was sending two medical specialists to help care for children in the quake zone.

The French Red Cross said a cargo plane would take water purification equipment to Iran on Wednesday.

TERRA.WIRE