Senior officials from Pakistan have flown to Washington to appeal for debt assistance from the IMF.

The exact price of the floods that have ravaged Pakistan will not be known for a long time to come, but the base cost of rebuilding in the country has now soared to £10 billion.

Masood Ahmed, IMf director for the Middle East and Central Asia department, said: "The IMF stands with Pakistan at this difficult time and will do its part to help the country,"

Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has expressed the country's gratitude for the foreign aid the country has been receiving: "In these circumstances, when the West and Europe and America are going through a recession... this kind of solidarity for Pakistan, I think, is very encouraging,"

The USA, UK and Australia lead the way currently in total donations, from a combination of government aid and charity donations.

The government of Pakistan faces great financial difficulty in trying to affect any aid, on its own, with its economy already in a fragile state before the beginning of this disaster.

Islamist charities in Pakistan are said to have reacted quicker to provide aid than the Pakistani government.

"We used to think they were terrorists but that's not right. They were first who came to help us," said Hidayatullah Bokhari, a 45-year-old farmer.

"We don't want them to become our rulers but they're not bad guys."