UN chief: Show us your humanity

World leaders gathered today in the shocked capital of Indonesia to hammer out their response to the tsunami tragedy.

In an emotional appeal for one billion dollars to deal with the immediate crisis, United Nations chief Kofi Annan urged them to seize "a singular chance to prove our humanity".

Representatives from 26 nations, including Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, US Secretary of State Colin Powell and the prime ministers of China, Japan and Australia, held a minute's silence at the start of the summit in Jakarta.

Despite promises of more money on the eve of the talks, there was bickering about how it should be spent and complaints from some nations hit by previous disasters that pledges of help had not been honoured once they had passed out of the spotlight.

That provoked Mr Annan to urge the world to show it could be trusted to keep its word.

"The past 11 days have been among the darkest in our lifetime," he said. "But they have also allowed us to see a new kind of light. We have seen an opportunity to heal old wounds and long-running conflicts. We have seen everyone pull together - north, south, east and west."

In Britain, the total given by the public since the disaster on Boxing Day leaped to ?82 million - dwarfing the £50 million promised so far by the Government.

There was a warning today from the Charity Commission that victims had missed out on £21 million because charities have not helped donors give tax-effectively.

It said the donations could have been more than onequarter higher had they used tax breaks under the Gift Aid scheme in which the Inland Revenue refunds charities the income tax donors pay on any money given - 28p in every pound.

Chief executive Andrew Hind said: "We want to maximise the millions raised to ensure that charities don't lose out."

Barry Gower, managing director of Gift Aid Consultancy Gain, said: "It's frightening. M&S and Tesco are taking donations for the crisis at the till but they're not taking any of it tax-effectively."

In Jakarta, Mr Annan said that despite billions pledged by governments in relief, there was a shortage of hard cash on the ground to buy vital supplies. He appealed for an immediate injection of ?518 million to keep the UN aid operation moving.

Australia promised £400 million and Germany £350 million, the two biggest donations to date.

Iran, scene of a disastrous earthquake a year ago, complained that only a fraction of the £600 million pledged ever arrived. Delegates appeared stunned by the devastation they had witnessed, with Louis Michel, the EU commissionerfor development and aid, describing it as " apocalyptic".

The main dispute appeared to be whether debt relief - heavily promoted by Gordon Brown - was the best way to help the affected

Australian prime minister John Howard said he could not guarantee that the money released would be targeted towards the needy. "You have no guarantee that the money ends up where it should," he said.

There were also complaints outside the heavily-guarded conference centre from some aid agencies who said they had not been invited.

In Sri Lanka, the British military logistics vessel, the RFA Diligence, arrived off Colombo. The warship HMS Chatham has been sent round the coast to search for areas in need of assistance. A third vessel, RFA Bayleaf, is on the way from the Gulf.

The ships have 22 naval engineers aboard and have engineering equipment to help rebuild Sri Lanka's damaged infrastructure, an MoD spokeswoman said. She was unable to say when any deployment would start.

International Development Secretary Hilary Benn was travelling to Aceh in Indonesia, the scene of some of the most horrific devastation.