The British charity said in a statement that the relief operation was "under-resourced and under-funded" and nearly half of the money committed had not been delivered.

"Donor governments must respond to the looming second disaster of winter by increasing their funding to the UN relief appeal and releasing what is already pledged," Oxfam said in a statement.

"A dramatic increase and improvement in the international relief operation is essential to avert a second humanitarian disaster," it added.

"Some communities have told Oxfam that they have already started digging graves before the earth is hardened by the winter."

The October quake killed more than 73,000 people and left around 3.5 million homeless mainly in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and parts of the country's North West Frontier Province.

The group's Pakistan director Farhana Faruqi Stocker said the international community must work together and work faster to fulfil their promise to prevent further deaths.

"Within weeks, the window of opportunity to bring relief to hard-to-reach areas will shut, the time to act is now," she said.

"It is a race against the onset of appalling weather, but success is still possible if the relief operation is scaled up now."

Oxfam said the United Nations has fallen well short of its appeal target of half-a-billion dollars and the World Food Programme was still short of 115 million dollars of the 182 million dollars it needed.

"Despite 40 percent of funds being committed 'on paper' to the fund, in reality it is only 25 percent funded, with 15 percent remaining locked in commitments not yet delivered," it said.

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