State television reported that 99 persons had been arrested overnight in the capital, Dar-es-Salaam, as violence spread to the mainland. There were also clashes in Mwanza, a town on the shore of Lake Victoria in western Tanzania.

The violence was the worst on Pemba, the smaller of Zanzibar's main islands, where witnesses said at least 20 persons had been killed, including four policemen, hacked and stoned to death by protesters.

A policeman was also beheaded on Saturday.

The Tanzanian army, largely comprising soldiers from the mainland, moved in to try and restore calm on Pemba.

Witnesses said bodies littered Pemba's roads and any semblance of normality had quickly degenerated as a wave of looting and rape engulfed the island, forcing many residents to flee into the forest.

Sustained shooting could also be heard in some parts of the island.

One doctor, who said he had counted 16 bodies, said an accurate death toll was proving hard to come by because those who had not fled were trapped inside their houses.

Scores of protesters have been injured, but doctors said the police was refusing to allow local hospitals to take them in.

The clashes began after the opposition Civic United Front (CUF) called demonstrations to demand a rerun of disputed elections in Zanzibar last year. The government declared the protests illegal and arrested CUF Chairman Ibrahim Lipumba.

The police said 11 persons, including three members of the security forces, had been killed on Zanzibar island, known locally as Unguja, a popular tourist destination which includes the capital, Zanzibar town.

The police on Zanzibar island, where violence was less widespread than on Pemba, blocked the main street in Zanzibar town and other roads. The port was reopened, although under heavy police guard.

The British Foreign Office has warned its nationals on the islands to keep a low profile.

Pemba, whose clove plantations make the island the mainstay of Zanzibar's economy, is one of CUF's main strongholds.

Its population is largely of Arab origin, many of whom accuse the ruling party of Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa of neglecting the island since 1964, when Zanzibar merged with mainland Tanganyika to form the United Republic of Tanzania.

Pemba lacks basic facilities like electricity and running water and is much less developed than Zanzibar island.

CUF officials say they are determined to press ahead with the demonstrations, which were also called to demand a new constitution defining the terms of the 1964 union.

Tanzania held multi-party elections last October for only the second time since Tanganyika's independence from Britain in 1961.

While elections on the mainland which returned Mkapa to power were generally smooth, the Zanzibar poll was marred by violence and accusations of vote-rigging.

Members of the Gujarati community, which has a very substantial presence in New York and adjoining states and is mostly engaged in business, were engaged in collecting funds to help the victims.

In Edison and Jersey City as also areas in New York where the Indian-American community is concentrated, atmosphere was still gloomy as people exchanged information about each other.

Care and Share organisation said it had sent $ 50,000 and its volunteers were working in the quake-hit areas in Gujarat.

The Indian Consulate here advised NGOs and other agencies to airlift tents directly to Ahmedabad.

In Dubai, India’s national carriers Air India and Indian Airlines offered to carry relief materials from the UAE free of cost to the quake victims as expatriate Indians began putting their shoulders together to aid people of Gujarat.

Meanwhile, a group of six Gujarati craftsmen who had been brought here for working at the India pavilion at the Global Village during next month’s Dubai shopping festival were distraught having been unable to find out about the welfare of their relatives and friends back home.

WASHINGTON: The USA is sending $ 1 million in emergency supplies to earthquake-stricken, officials have said. Supplies including plastic sheeting, blankets, water containers, purification and distribution kits and generators were to arrive in India on Monday, officials at the US Agency for International Development said on Saturday.

The agency, through the organisation CARE, also began distributing 110 tonnes of food. AID also will provide financial assistance to support the work of relief groups already on the ground in Gujarat.

TOKYO: Japan on Sunday said it was giving 103.5 million yen ($ 976,000) in emergency aid to help victims of Gujarat’s devastating earthquake. The aid package comprises $ 700,000 in grants-in-aid and materials worth 30 million yen, the official said. Meanwhile the Japanese Red Cross Society dispatched a 12-member medical team to India.

BEIJING: The Chinese Government on Sunday decided to provide materials worth five million yuan ($ 600,000 US) to India as emergency humanitarian aid to the quake-stricken people in Gujarat and elsewhere, the official Xinhua news agency reported. On Saturday, the Chinese Red Cross offered $ 50,000 (US) to its Indian counterpart as emergency aid.

SYDNEY: Australia on Sunday pledged to contribute $ 550,000 (US) to help victims of the earthquake in Gujarat. Prime Minister John Howard said Australia would provide funds as well as sending an experienced disaster management expert, Joe Barr, to the scene of the quake.

NANCY(France): A team of 20 French doctors and other health workers was preparing to travel to Gujarat to help the survivors of a massive quake.

KAULA LUMPUR: Malaysia is providing $ 100,000 in immediate aid for victims of the Gujarat earthquake, Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said. Malaysia has also offered a specially-trained team to assist in rescue operations.

DUBLIN: The Irish Government has pledged upto one million Irish pounds (1.27 million Euros) of emergency aid for the victims of the earthquake in India.

BRUSSELS: Belgium has offered one million Euros ($920,000) in disaster relief to victims of the earthquake in Gujarat.

LONDON: Britain’s huge Gujarati community has swung into immediate action to raise help for the earthquake victims in Gujarat.

A large number of the half a million Gujaratis in Britain come from areas like Bhuj, Saurashtra and Pachchao, among the worst affected by the quake. “There is hardly a family in Britain that would not be affected directly or indirectly,” said founder and spokesman for the National Council for Gujarati Organisation (NCGO) Shantoo Ruparell. “We expect to raise at least $ 150,000 at these meetings,” he said.

MOSCOW: A specially equipped Russian plane has left for India to assist in rescue operations in the country whose western parts were severely affected by a powerful earthquake on Friday.

The equipment and dogs aboard the Russian plane are known to miraculously help trace people buried deep in quake debris. 

DUBAI: Oman has sent 1.5 tonnes of medicines and food for victims of Friday’s devastating earthquake in Gujarat.

The first consignment of relief supplies has already reached Gujarat while two chartered cargo aircraft would fly to Ahmedabad with full plane load of relief material today and tomorrow, a press release from the Indian Embassy in Muscat said.

"We feel that today we are closer than ever to the possibility of striking a final deal with the Palestinians," Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami said last night, taking his cue from a statement issued by both sides.

Negotiators issued a joint statement after five days of talks late last night saying they were closer than ever to an agreement after the talks in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Taba.

They said they hoped the remaining gaps would be bridged after the election on February 6, even though opinion polls show Barak losing to right-wing challenger Ariel Sharon by 16 to 18 percentage points.

“It is doubtful there has ever been a round of talks so serious, deep and detailed,” Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, Israel’s chief negotiator, said yesterday.

Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Korei, also known as Abu Ala, was cautious, however, saying: “No doubt gaps on all issues remain. I cannot say these gaps are easy to bridge because the issues are not easy.”

Both sides said Palestinian President Yasser Arafat might also meet Barak in Sweden on Tuesday or Wednesday in a bid to further boost peace hopes.

A Palestinian official said the sides had agreed not to publicise the points of agreement hammered out by the negotiating teams so that they might resume their work without intervention after the election.

Palestinian negotiators told Reuters that progress had been made on territorial issues, refugees, and security.

One negotiator said the sides had agreed Israel would remain in control of 4 per cent of the West Bank in the areas of the Jewish Settlements of Ariel, Gush Etzion and near Jerusalem. This did not include a possible land swap that would give Israel more West Bank land in exchange for an equal amount of territory inside its own borders.

Britain’s most prominent Asian MP, Mr Keith Vaz, was made a minister shortly after tycoon Srichand Hinduja lobbied Mr Blair to give Mr Vaz a job, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

Mr Vaz, (43), of Indian origin and Britain’s most senior minister to come from an ethnic minority is under growing pressure over his involvement with the Hinduja family.

Mr Srichand Hinduja is at the centre of the controversy which led to Mr Peter Mandelson, a key aide to Mr Blair, resigning his ministerial post last week over claims that he intervened in an application for a British passport by the businessman.

According to the Sunday Telegraph's latest allegation, Mr Hinduja wrote to Mr Blair in the spring of 1999 complaining that there was no Asian minister in the British Government.

Within months, Mr Vaz, was appointed to his first ministerial post in the Lord Chancellor’s Department.

The Downing Street insisted that all promotions were made on merit.

A senior Downing Street spokesman said: “The idea that the Prime Minister would appoint anyone to his government on the basis of a letter from anybody is ridiculous.”

Mr Vaz, now minister for Europe in the Labour government, has confirmed that he wrote letters to the Interior Ministry about applications for passports by billionaire brothers, Mr Srichand and Mr Gopichand Hinduja.

The Mail quoted an unnamed source today alleging that Mr Vaz gave insider advice to the brothers about how to fight possible extradition to India to face criminal charges.

Mr Vaz has insisted that his dealings with the Hindujas were quite proper and has defended his actions as part of his role as a representative of Britain’s Asian community.

But he has refused to expand on his comments until the completion of an inquiry which has been launched into the passports affair.

Mr Blair insisted on Friday there were no grounds for Mr Vaz to resign. Meanwhile, Mr Mandelson has claimed that he was rushed into resigning from the government and had agreed to quit in a moment of personal weakness, according to The Sunday Times.

Mr Mandelson, Mr Blair’s chief architect of the Labour Party’s 1997 general election victory, insisted he had not lied about his involvement in the Hinduja passport scandal and swore to clear his name.

The Chairman of Britain’s Committee on Standards in Public Life, Lord Francis Neill, has urged Mr Blair to rewrite the ministerial code of conduct in the wake of the Hinduja affair.