ISLAMABAD, Oct. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Pakistan Friday shifted its focus from search and rescue to relief operations in the affected areas six days after the devastating earthquake as hope of finding survivors diminishes and the relief operation was underway in fullswing.

    Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told Xinhua the government has called off the efforts to rescue any survivors still caught beneath the rubble. "We only rescued one student in Muzaffarabad Thursday. We stop the search and rescue operations asthere is a very slim chance of finding any survivors in the rubble now," he said.

    He added that the government will concentrate on relief efforts and the focus must now shift to the living.

    Earlier Friday, Army spokesman Major Farooq Nasir said in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, that the technical teams had said the chance of survival is now "less than two percent."

    Nasir said the heart-breaking decision to officially call off the rescue efforts came during a meeting overnight Thursday between army officers and aid agencies in Muzaffarabad.

    However, Pakistan's chief military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan denied that the government called off the search for survivors, saying "relentless efforts continue to rescue the survivors and at the same time relief efforts are in full swing." "No decision has been taken to discontinue the search for survivors," he added.

    The coordinator of the United Nations relief operations, Alain Pasche, agreed there was virtually no hope of finding survivors but it was "up to the Pakistani government to declare the search and rescue phase is over."

    Army teams would now begin clearing the rubble and spraying thewreckage with disinfectant, he said, as more bulldozers and heavy earth-moving trucks began arriving in this devastated city.

    Pakistan Army troops, who are busy round the clock in relief and rescue activities in the quake-hit areas, have only rescued 25 people alive from the rubble in Muzaffarabad since Saturday morning.

    There were no reports of survivors being found in the rubble onThursday, and international teams that have staged extraordinary rescues in recent days said chances of saving more lives were remote. But many frantic survivors refused to lose hope, especially the parents of hundreds of children who were buried alive beneath their schools.

    The 7.6-magnitude quake which struck Pakistan-controlled Kashmir on Saturday left more than 25,000 people dead and 63,000 injured and made some 2.5 million people homeless. Pakistani and UN officials said the death toll is sure to rise significantly as the rubble is cleared.

    Pakistani government has expedited relief and rehabilitation work to provide shelter and food to the victims. Federal Relief Commissioner Major General Muhammad Farooq said due to winter, themost important need of the victims is shelter, so the government decided to set up tentage villages to accommodate the people in the affected areas and to ensure provision of medical care and other facilities to them.

    The government Thursday decided its employees to donate one dayto three days' salary to the President Relief Fund for the earthquake victims and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz directed the Foreign Office to issue instructions to Pakistani foreign missions abroad to adopt a pro-active approach aimed at mobilizing the overseas Pakistanis to donate generously to the President Relief Fund.

    Farooq said due to high demand there has been shortage of tentsand blankets in the market and the government would import 100,000 tents and 2 million blankets to provide immediate shelter to the victims.

    The President's Relief Fund has so far received 1.7 billion rupees (28.3 million dollars) besides 360 million dollars from abroad. The government has already committed 2 billion rupees (33.3 million dollars) and 1 billion rupees (16.7 million dollars) to Pakistan controlled-Kashmir and the North West Frontier province governments respectively to rebuild "each and every affected house" and cities will be rebuilt under a certain plan.

    International aid kept pouring into Pakistan Friday. The country has so far received a total amount of 360 million dollars of foreign aid.

    World Health Organization's regional director Hussein A. Gezairy Thursday in Islamabad said the earthquake was a bigger catastrophe than last year's tsunami in terms of the number of people made homeless and the extent of destruction to infrastructure.

    Gezairy said the quake rendered 2.5 million people homeless as against 1.5 million displaced by the tsunami. Besides, another million people are in extreme grief, needing immediate help.

    He said 10 billion US dollars had been mobilized by the United Nations and the world community for tsunami relief. He still hopedthat the world community would come forward to support Pakistan inrebuilding its entire infrastructure and to provide humanitarian assistance like shelter, water and basic healthcare. Enditem