"The extent of the catastrophe that we found there is unimaginable," Portuguese Lieutenant Colonel Mario Lemos Pires, responsible for coordinating the NATO rescue operation, told Portugal's news agency LUSA.

According to Lemos Pires, the NATO Reaction Force (NRF) of 1,000 soldiers has completed 135 helicopter missions in the areas most affected by the quake and transported some 2,000 tonnes of food and other aid to the victims of the disaster.

"If the level of aid to the population is kept up and if media coverage continues", the 2.8 million to 3.2 million people without shelter may survive, with some difficulty, the harsh winter weather, he said.

Pakistani meteorologists have forecst a severe winter for 2006 with sub-zero temperatures and snowfalls of up to five metres (16 feet).

The 7.6-magnitude quake that hit south Asia on October 8 left more than 73,000 people dead, according to the latest official figures.

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