THE fastest charity appeal in Britain, which raised £100 million for tsunami relief, is expected to be shut down when the Disasters Emergency Committee meets this week.

Most households in Britain have given money to the fund, which is run by 12 of the biggest charities working against poverty, hunger and disease. Donors gave £1 million an hour in the early stages but much smaller sums are now being contributed and the phone lines are likely to be withdrawn.

The decision, on the agenda for a meeting of trustees representing the charities midweek, is likely to provoke protest and suspicion. The charities would end the pooling of the disaster appeal and replace it with the usual competition for funds.

The Prime Minister is expected to brief MPs today about the latest numbers of British dead and missing in a statement to the Commons. Confirmed deaths have risen to 50 with 391 highly likely to have been killed. There is better news on the numbers unaccounted for, as backpackers in the region contact their families to confirm they are safe and well.

Mr Blair said on BBC television’s Breakfast with Frost that the figure of 2,000 missing had already fallen by 300 or 400. “It is just an immensely difficult job to get absolutely accurate figures,” he said. “All countries are struggling with this.” The impact will strike home today in workplaces returning from the seasonal holiday to discover colleagues dead or missing. The emergency in the Indian Ocean is far from over. Two weeks after the tsunami struck, at least 159,260 are known to have died, two thirds of them in impoverished parts of Indonesia. There are 1.1 million homeless and 18,000 missing. Aid pledged worldwide is reported to be more than $7.6 billion (£4.1 billion).

The public’s unprecedented response to the DEC’s appeal was credited for persuading the Government to triple its donation to £50 million. The committee was still receiving £11 million a day last week, with the total raised increased from £78 million on Wednesday to £100 million on Friday.

• The Paris Club of creditor nations have agreed on a moratorium on debt repayments for countries hit by the tsunami. The freeze will benefit primarily Sri Lanka and Indonesia, as only the two countries worst hit out of the 11 countries struck applied to have their situations reviewed. Hervé Gaymard, the French Foreign Minister, said that in Indonesia a freeze for 2005 would give additional resources for relief and reconstruction “to the tune of three billion dollars”. (AFP)

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