Kathmandu, September 25:

Australian ambassador to Nepal, Graeme Lade today announced that his country would provide 880,000 Australian dollars (AUD) as additional emergency flood relief assistance to Nepal.

AUD 350,000 of additional assistance will be provided through the Australian Red Cross to the Nepal Red Cross Society; AUD 180,000 through Austcare to Action Aid Nepal; and AUD 350,000 through CARE Australia to CARE Nepal. This was stated in a press statement issued by the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer.

The additional assistance will be used towards providing food and non-food relief items; provision of mobile health facilities across the flood-affected regions, supply of essential medicines to fight dysentry, diarrhoea, typhoid and cholera, hygiene kits and water purifying tablets for the recent monsoon flood victims across the country, the press statement further said.

Australia responded to previous appeals by the United Nations and the Red Cross with an AUD 600,000 contribution in mid August 2007 to the World Food Program AUD 500,000 and Nepal Red Cross Society AUD 100,000.