A steady flow of relief supplies rumbled into Pakistan's earthquake zone on Thursday but the scene remained chaotic as survivors and rescuers sought in vain for ways to distribute the material.

President Pervez Musharraf called on the country on Wednesday night to unite in the face of tragedy and appealed to the estimated 3.3 million people affected by the quake to be patient, saying relief efforts were gathering pace.

But for most survivors in the northern mountains of the country, it was their sixth day without electricity. They are also yet to receive reliable supplies of food, water and shelter.

A five-person medical team wandering around Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir and the city worst hit by Saturday's 7.6 magnitude quake, said they had come from an unaffected part of the northern Pakistan territory to offer their services.

"We want to help but we don't know where to start. Where is the organization? Where should we go?" said Rehmat Ullah Wazir, a medical officer in his hospital's department of surgery.

Businessman Achmed Rafiqi returned to Muzaffarabad from the commercial capital of Karachi on Wednesday night to find a pile of rubble where his home and electronics business had been.

"I fear that my whole family is under there," he said. "But how can I find them? How can I bury them? There is no one to help me, not even God."

The official death toll in northern Pakistan stood at 23,000 on Thursday, but that was expected to rise as relief workers slowly reach remote villages deep in mountainous valleys in the foothills of the Himalayas. Another 1,200 people are confirmed dead across the border in Indian Kashmir.

Some local officials and politicians in Pakistan say the death toll could exceed 40,000.

Unable to do anything for the thousands of dead still buried under the rubble, the government is focused on getting food and shelter to the estimated 2.5 million people made homeless.

BRIGHT SPOT

One bright spot was some tentative cooperation between the armies of India and Pakistan, old enemies and locked in decades of hostility over rival claims to Kashmir.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, small groups of Indian soldiers crossed the frontline at the invitation of Pakistani counterparts to help repair a bunker they would once have shot at or shelled.

"It was something quite unique," said Indian army spokesman Colonel S.K. Gautam.

The Line of Control dividing Kashmir has long been one of the world's most tense and highly fortified frontlines.

But this week, military helicopters are being allowed to fly much closer to the frontline than ever before as they scour the mountains for flattened villages and people in need of relief. For the time being, a pilot need not fear enemy fire.

In Muzaffarabad, trucks were heard rumbling all night. At dawn, however, no coordination distribution system was visible and gangs of desperate residents continued to chase every truck or bus that looked like it might be carrying aid supplies.

Thousands of people carrying boxes and bags continued to stream on foot toward the mountains, trying to reach loved ones they left behind in villages to find work in the big cities.

"I'm going home. I just met a person from my village in Muzaffarabad who told me three members of my family are dead -- my wife, my sister and a child. But I will not believe them unless I see their bodies," said Ikram, walking with a bag on his shoulder. He said his village was 18 miles away.

Aftershocks continue to rock the region affected by the quake and were expected to continue, Pakistan meteorological officials said. On Thursday a 5.6 magnitude tremor jolted Islamabad.

Musharraf said in his address to the nation that given the hugeness of the problem, the difficulty of the terrain and the landslides blocking roads the relief effort was going as well as could be expected. International relief officials agreed.

"Given the size and the magnitude of the quake and the areas (affected), things are going reasonably well. My people there are not complaining about the coordination," U.N. Secretary-General     Kofi Annan told reporters in Portugal.

DWINDLING CHANCES

The higher parts of the disaster zone have received their first snowfall and there is a race on to get people under shelter before winter bites, with night-time temperatures already falling to as low as 6-7 degrees Celsius (43-46 degrees Fahrenheit).

Muzaffarabad smells of rotting corpses and ruptured sewage pipes, but some telecommunications and electricity have been restored.

A rescue team at the site of a flattened university hostel for women was looking for survivors among some 70 victims, but no one seriously expects anyone to be left alive.

"There's a one percent chance, maybe," said an exhausted-looking doctor, Sulemankhail Sanaullah. People could survive for three days without water, he said.

At Balakot, in North West Frontier Province, where hundreds of school children were entombed in their classrooms, the hysteria seen in the two days after the quake has subsided.

The army and numerous relief and rescue teams are in place, but many grief-stricken people said it was too late, as they struggled to find place to bury the dead.

Pledges of around 350 million US dollar had been received from abroad so far and appeals had raised close to 17 million domestically.

Musharraf thanked countries that had come to Pakistan's aid so far, but singled out Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a significant gesture given the decades of enmity.

PHOTO CAPTION

A boy is seen after receiving medical treatment at a local Muslim aid organisation, Jamat ud Dawa, in Muzaffarabad October 13, 2005. (REUTERS)