Source: Reuters

CHAKOTHI, Pakistan, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Pakistan said on Sunday preparations were complete for opening border crossing points with India, but New Delhi said it was ready to open only one of five points to help survivors of last month's quake.

The Pakistani proposal to open five points on the old rivals' disputed border in Kashmir appears more of a symbolic gesture of friendship, rather than something that will make a big difference for efforts to bring relief to survivors.

"We are making all preparations," said a Pakistani military official, standing about 200 metres (yards) from a crossing with India near the town of Chakothi in Pakistani Kashmir.

"From our side, preparations are complete," said the official, who declined to be identified.

The earthquake killed more than 73,000 people in Pakistani Kashmir and North West Frontier Province, making it the country's worst disaster. About 1,300 people were killed in Indian Kashmir.

More than four weeks after the disaster, underfunded aid agencies are struggling to head off a second wave of deaths as a bitter winter closes in.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf proposed opening five points on their disputed border in Kashmir, known as the line of Control, last month for divided families to meet and to allow aid to cross both ways.

India agreed and the two sides said the crossings would open on Nov. 7. But on Saturday, India said only one of the five, in its Poonch district, would open on Monday.

Another crossing point would open on Wednesday and a third on Thursday. Work to clear the way to two other points, including the removal of landmines, was continuing, Indian officials said.

The Indian army said a relief camp at the first point to open, at Chakan da Bagh, was ready to host 100 people.

"We have restored a helipad to evacuate emergency patients who will come across the border," Colonel S.K. Gautam, an Indian army spokesman, said.

While the Pakistani military might be ready to open the border at Chakothi, the road linking the town to the rest of Pakistan is still blocked by landslides. So any aid sent in from the Indian side would still have to be moved by helicopter to communities outside the immediate area.

WEATHER WORRY

Aid officials warn that time is running out for up to three million people left homeless by the disaster, some of whom remain without help high in the mountains.

The Pakistani meteorological office has said widespread showers were expected in the disaster zone from Thursday, which would fall as snow over 5,000 feet (1,500 metres) by next weekend.

The World Health Organisation said the largest number of patients being brought into clinics were already those suffering from acute respiratory infections such as pneumonia.

Aid agencies have scoured the world for tents for the homeless but many more are needed.

One relief official said on Sunday, many of the tents that have been sent might be unsuitable.

"My concern is that people think they've got a tent and that's enough, but it is a summer tent and not a winter tent," said Jesper Lund, a senior U.N. humanitarian assistance official in Muzaffarabad, the devastated capital of Pakistani Kashmir.

"We have to reassess and make sure they've got heating facilities otherwise when the temperature drops another 10 degrees and the snow comes the weight of it will pull the tent down."

Despite the massive death toll and the dangers posed by winter, in which temperatures are expected to plummet to minus 20 Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit), the world has been slow to respond.

The United Nations sought $550 million for emergency work, but has so far received only $135 million.

With some roads still blocked by landslides, emergency work has relied on helicopters, but the United Nations has said its fleet could be grounded soon by the lack of funds. (Additional reporting by Ashok Pahalwan in Jammu and Simon Cameron-Moore in Muzaffarabad)