International aid for tsunami-hit regions continued to pour in Wednesday as more countries sent relief goods or made donation calls.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Wednesday that China will increase its aid and Chinese non-governmental organizations and citizens have been mobilized to donate.

He made the pledge in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta where he is attending a special summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations along with about 20 heads of state and representatives of international organizations on Thursday.

Wen's special plane also carried China's third batch of humanitarian aid to Indonesia.

UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland told reporters Wednesday that global donations for tsunami-hit countries have surged to nearly 4 billion dollars.

He thanked the around 50 countries and financial institutions for their contributions and called on them to maintain their commitment to survivors in a longer term.

The International Monetary Fund will provide an aid of up to 1 billion dollars for tsunami-hit Asia, said its director general Rodrigo Rato in a statement on Wednesday.

The Arab League has opened an account for Arab individuals and organizations to offer donations for tsunami-hit countries, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported on Wednesday.

Amr Moussa, secretary-general of the pan-Arab organization, said in a statement that the donations will be transferred to the accounts of the Asian countries.

Some Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and Egypt, have already sent emergency aid to the affected countries, he said.

The Albanian Council of Ministers decided Wednesday to provide an aid of 500,000 dollars, the ATA news agency reported.

Australia will provide 1 billion Australian dollars (about 764 million dollars) to aid Indonesia, Australian Prime Minister John Howard told reporters on Wednesday.

This was the biggest single aid package in Australia's history, and half of the assistance will be in the form of grants for short term relief and the remainder in loans for long term reconstruction, Howard said.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair told BBC radio on Wednesday that his government might increase its aid to several hundred million pounds, but added that his government will wait and see what is required.

He also said Britain backs the proposal on debt relief to hardest-hit nations.

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin congratulated individual Canadians Wednesday for donating more than 70 million Canadian dollars (58 million dollars) for tsunami relief efforts.

At a press conference in Montreal, Martin said the Canadian government's contribution could be "much greater" than the 80 million Canadian dollars (66 million dollars) already pledged.

Martin also said his government will consider ways of increasing immigration from tsunami-hit regions.

The government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on Wednesday offered an emergency aid of 150,000 dollars to tsunami-hit South Asia, reported the official Korean Central News Agency.

Germany is to increase its relief aid to 500 million euros (664million dollars), German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told a press conference on Wednesday.

The figure makes Germany the largest donor country ahead of Japan and the United States.

Malaysia has agreed to allow donor countries such as the United States, Britain, Australia and Japan to use its airspace and airports as transit bases to send humanitarian aid to Acheh, Indonesia, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak told local reporters Wednesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday pledged to send more aid to Sri Lanka and Thailand, the Kremlin press service said.

Also on Wednesday, a plane carrying about 20 tons of humanitarian aid left Russia for Indonesia, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Zimbabwe also pledged aid to Indonesia.

An earthquake, measuring 8.7 on the Richter scale, hit at 06:58a.m. local time (0058 GMT) on Dec. 26 off the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It was followed by a tsunami that swept across the coastal countries of the

Indian Ocean rim, wiping off villages and killing about 150,000 people. It is estimated that more than 1.8 million people in the tsunami-hit regions need food aid and 5 million others have been made homeless.

Source: Xinhua