Rich nations have been tight-fisted and too slow in offering help to devastated communities in southern Asia, Australian aid agencies said yesterday.
The United Nations says it will take "many billions of dollars" and many years for countries to recover from Sunday's earthquake and tsunamis.
Australia has already donated $10 million to the relief effort, with more help to come.
But many of the world's wealthiest countries have pledged less than $40 million between them so far. Britain has chipped in only $A1.7 million, barely topping the $1.5 million that Victoria pledged yesterday.
Canada has promised $A2.5 million, Germany and Spain $A1.77 million each and France $A177,000, while Japan has offered an emergency medical team to Sri Lanka and a damage assessment group to Indonesia. The United States has given $A19.6 million.
"Clearly the international community has not responded to the challenge yet," Oxfam Community Aid Abroad executive director Andrew Hewett said.
"Rich countries need to recognise the scale of this disaster and respond accordingly and respond quickly, and that means more money and more supplies are required."
Oxfam and aid groups have praised the Australian Government's lead in the relief effort.
"The US have given twice as much as Australia in dollar terms, but given their population is about 13 times our size, Australia has probably been the most generous, most responsive donor so far," Mr Hewett said.
The Australian Council for International Development said it was disappointed by how little foreign governments had given.
"The levels of international aid at the moment are . . . probably the minutiae of an adequate response," said Jack de Groot, who heads the Catholic aid agency Caritas Australia.
Australian appeal hotlines have been swamped with calls, raising nearly $3 million by last night.
"It's been really hectic. You put down the phone and it rings again . . . people are being very generous," Red Cross volunteer Jenny Patterson said.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he was developing a second and "considerably larger" aid package, to be announced today. "It may be that we can help a little in Sri Lanka and India as well, but the real focus of our effort will be on Indonesia and Thailand," he said.
Labor foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said a larger donation was warranted.
"We are now looking at a war zone spread across two continents and 10 countries," he said.
