The European Union has pledged or earmarked $82 million in aid so far for Central American countries hit by Hurricane Mitch.
Mitch, the deadliest Atlantic storm in 200 years, killed an estimated 11,000 people in Central America, with 13,000 more missing feared dead and thousands more homeless.
The Austrian Foreign Minister, Mr Wolfgang Schussel, said the European Commission and member-states "will deliver a package of more than 70 million ecus ($82 million) for the humanitarian disaster and for the relief of the refugees and the destroyed infrastructure".
Officials later said this was not a totally new aid package but the sum of what had already been pledged by the Commission and by EU member-states on a bilateral basis, plus some pledges or estimates of more money to come.
"A lot more will be needed. It doesn't stop this year," a spokesman for Mr Schussel said following a regular meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
He said there had been no discussion of a French proposal for a moratorium on international debt owed by the disaster-hit countries, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala.
"It's an interesting proposal but it's not the only one," said Mr Ramon de Miguel, Spain's state secretary for foreign affairs.
The four Central American countries have foreign debts totalling $20 billion (£12 billion).
European foreign ministers last night backed a plan to give Russia £300 million sterling in emergency food aid this winter, to be sold in Russian markets and the proceeds used to finance EU-backed social programmes like the support of orphanages and hospitals.
The food aid depends on a plan being worked out between Moscow and the Commission to ensure it is not diverted to the Russian mafia.
In Dublin, the Latin America Solidarity Centre has asked why the Government allocated only £200,000 in aid to the Central American disaster, when Fyffes announced it would give $500,000 to humanitariasn relief in Honduras and Guatemala. The LASC opened its own Central American appeal. Donations can be made by phoning (01) 662-1874.