NATO was preparing last night to send 1,000 troops and a fleet of helicopters to Pakistan after the United Nations made a plea for help in saving hundreds of thousands of survivors from almost certain death as the winter looms.

The decision came after Jan Egeland, the UN’s top relief official, flew to Brussels yesterday to request Nato assistance as alarm mounted over the fate of half a million survivors still trapped without aid in the mountains.

Mr Egeland lambasted donor nations for their inadequate response to what is proving the most challenging relief operation the world has ever seen and called on the international community to organise a “second Berlin airlift”.

“Think bold, think big, think creatively,” he said. “I don’t know how you evacuate hundreds of thousands of people from the Himalayas, but the most effective military alliance in the world should know that.”

A Nato official said that plans were being finalised last night to start an airlift aided by a 500-strong engineering battalion and 500 support staff.

Friction between India and Pakistan over Kashmir has stalled two initiatives to improve the relief operation. India withdrew an offer of military helicopters when Pakistan said it would accept them only without Indian crew because they would be flying in militarily sensitive areas. India is also wary of Pakistan’s offer to let Indian Kashmiris cross the Line of Control to help in the Pakistani zone, because it fears that militants could infiltrate in the opposite direction.

Mr Egeland yesterday called on them to compromise.

“These discussions are now holding up a bigger operation and they shouldn’t,” he said. “I would want them to work out a compromise immediately.”

The Pakistani Army said that it had cleared a major road in Kashmir to allow more supplies in by lorry. But officials say that the road to the Jheelum Valley will take six weeks to clear, too long to save thousands of people there.

• Donations can be made through the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) website at www.dec.org.uk or by phone on 0870 6060900

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