DHAKA: The United Nations has urged Nepal to relax customs controls which it says are holding up deliveries of aid to survivors of last week's earthquake.

UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said Nepal had a duty to provide faster customs clearance for relief supplies.

Many people are yet to receive the aid, which is piling up at Kathmandu airport following, a week after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake.

At least 6,840 have died. Authorities have ruled out finding more survivors.

On Saturday Baroness Amos said she had reminded Prime Minister Sushil Koirala that Nepal had signed an agreement with the UN in 2007 for simpler and faster customs clearance for relief aid in a disaster.

"He has undertaken to ensure that happens, so I hope that from now we will see an improvement in those administrative issues," she said.

The UN representative in the country, Jamie McGoldrick, said the Nepalese government "should not be using peacetime customs methodology".

BDST: 0950 HRS, MAY 03, 2015
HB