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Food aid for

firefighters battling

Mongolian blaze

ULAN BATOR: Emergency food supplies have been flown to weary nomads and fire-fighters battling a huge blaze that has raged across the Mongolian steppes for a week, officials said on Tuesday.

Satellite pictures showed the fire, which crossed into Mongolia's northeast from Russia last Tuesday, had destroyed at least 5,000 sq km of grassland in Dornod Province, an official at the National Remote Sensing Centre said.

State Emergency Commission fire-fighters flew to the blaze on Monday, taking food for herdsmen who had fought the fire without sleep for five days, the head of the commission's parachute division told Reuters.

More than 1,000 cattle had perished, he said, and thousands of nomads would have to leave the region to find pastures for their remaining herds.

Lack of funding hampered fire-fighting efforts, he said, adding that the fire could have been controlled had adequate measures been taken early last week.

The fire, which was fanned by winds blowing at about 14-16 metres a second, killed one nomad woman at the weekend and badly injured her husband.

No other casualties have been reported. Dornod officials joined the fire fighting efforts on Monday and could not be contacted for comment.-Reuter