Kofi Annan says helping survivors of last week’s earthquake and【L1】______. i

Kofi Annan says helping survivors of last week’s earthquake and killer waves in the Indian Ocean is a race against time. The United Nations secretary-general says countries that have offered aid must hurry and provide it. The offers add up to around four billion dollars. United Nations officials say one-fourth of that is needed during the next six months.
    The concern about offers of international aid is based on history. For example, the earthquake in Bam, Iran, in December of 2003 killed more than twenty-six thousand people. Countries and groups offered hundreds of millions of dollars worth of assistance. The United Nations says it has confirmed only about seventeen million dollars in aid received so far. Governments and organizations that offered help dispute that, however.
    On Thursday Mr. Annan met with world leaders in Jakarta, Indonesia to discuss aid for victims of the tsunami. The leaders discussed and welcomed the idea of suspending some debt owed by affected nations. But the leaders did not say they would do so. Some said that making direct payments to survivors would be more helpful.
    Representatives of twenty-six countries and international organizations attended the meeting in Jakarta. Officials say they will cooperate to develop a tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.