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World unites in offering help to quake-hit Iran

REUTERS, Geneva
President Bush, who once branded Iran part of an "axis of evil," and other world leaders stepped up aid yesterday to Tehran, struggling to cope with an earthquake disaster that killed 25,000 people.
Washington has no official ties with Tehran, but Bush said in a statement: "We stand ready to help the people of Iran."
A spokesman for Bush said the United States would be offering humanitarian aid, and a US official said the State Department would be announcing an aid package soon.
Washington broke diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic after militant students stormed the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979, and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.
Bush has accused Iran of trying to secretly develop weapons of mass destruction.
The United Nations, European Union countries, Russia, China, Poland, Japan, Turkey, Saudi
Arabia and Australia and others also heeded Iran's appeals for help from the international community.
They pledged doctors, medical supplies, financial aid and rescuers with sniffer dogs and special equipment to locate survivors.
Iranian officials said some 50,000 people were also injured when Friday's quake struck the ancient Silk Road city of Bam in southeast Iran, devastating 70 percent of its buildings.
Italy, as current president of the European Union, will coordinate EU aid to avoid duplication.
UN officials said they were releasing an immediate emergency grant of $90,000 to help Iran handle the aftermath of the quake and had sent experts to help assess the damage.
The world body's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the UN team would also work to mobilize and oversee international assistance.
The immediate need was for medicines, tents, mobile hospitals, electricity generators, water purifi-
cation equipment and blankets, OCHA official Madeleine Moulin-Azevedo said.
The UN children's fund Unicef said it was sending first aid kits and medical supplies. It called for $350,000 in donations.
Russia's Emergencies Ministry, highly skilled in reacting to frequent natural and man-made disasters, offered rapid-response units of doctors, paramedics and sniffer dog handlers to help find people buried under rubble.
"In accordance with an order from the head of state Emergencies Ministry specialists are preparing to fly to Iran to give help to the injured," said a statement from President Vladimir Putin's press service after a meeting with Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu.
Itar-Tass news agency quoted the Emergencies Ministry as saying planes would leave for Iran on Saturday with 100 experts for searching collapsed buildings, 10 doctors and search dogs.