The International Monetary Fund will provide up to one billion dollars in financial assistance to Asian countries hit by the Dec. 26 Tsunami disaster, the organization's director general Rodrigo Rato said Wednesday.

"The IMF stands ready to provide financial assistance to affected countries, in the first instance through our Emergency Natural Disaster Assistance facility," Rato said in a statement.

"This financing, which could be on the order of one billion dollars US for the most affected countries, could be made available quickly and without an IMF program," he said.

The financing needs have yet to be fully assessed. This, together with the most appropriate forms in which the assistance should be delivered, will be discussed on Thursday and in the coming days, Rato said.

The statement came as the United Nations said that aid pledges from around the world had reached between three and four billion dollars.

An emergency international aid summit will be held in Jakarta, capital of Indonesia, on Thursday.

According to reports reaching here, the United Nations warned Wednesday that Asia's tsunami death toll could double to about 300,000 unless survivors received clean water and other basic services by the end of the week to prevent disease.

(Xinhua News Agency January 6, 2005)