Jakarta - The United Nations will be able to raise money for victims of recent natural disasters in Asia and the Pacific despite the global economic crisis, the UN's chief of humanitarian affairs, John Holmes, said Thursday.

The UN on Friday launched a 38-million-dollar appeal to help Indonesia meet the needs of survivors of a major earthquake that struck West Sumatra province on September 30, and killed at least 1,117 people.

Another appeal for 74 million dollars has been for victims of deadly storms in the Philippines.

"A lot of disasters are happening simultaneously," Holmes told the German Press Agency dpa during a visit to Jakarta after touring areas devastated by the West Sumatra quake.

"This is not the easiest economic and financial context globally in which to be raising money, but I think there will be and there's willingness to respond from the donors," he said.

Holmes said the UN would contribute between 6 million and 7 million dollars from its emergency response fund.

"That will give us a good start. I would expect other donors to come in with contributions in the appeal," he said.

The Philippine appeal had managed to raise 20 million dollars.

A 5-metre-high tsunami struck the island of Samoa two weeks ago, killing 138 people. Vietnam and Laos have also been hit by storms in recent weeks.

Data issued by Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency said the Sumatra quake left 2,219 people injured and more than 100,000 buildings were severely damaged or flattened.

The Philippine Office of Civil Defence (OCD) said Wednesday the death toll in two storms that pummeled the country in the past two weeks had risen to 712.

Typhoon Parma, which slammed into the northern Philippines on October 3 and brought heavy rains for almost one week, killed 375 people, mostly due to landslides.

Storm Ketsana, which triggered the worst floods in over 40 years in Manila and outlying areas on September 26, left 337 people dead with 37 still missing.

The back-to-back storms affected 7.45 million people, with more than 300,000 still staying in evacuation centres.

Holmes said assistance had reached all areas in West Sumatra and praised the Indonesian government for what he called effective coordination of the relief effort.

"We'll continue our efforts for two or three more months and after that it will be very much on rehabilitation and recovery," he said.

Holmes also said the Asian region, especially Indonesia, had made major progress in disaster preparedness but more needed to be done to anticipate future calamities.

"Of course the system is not perfect but ... I'm sure it will improve further," he said. "Lessons are learned from each disaster." (dpa)