Indonesia quake response $60 mln short - U.N.

JAKARTA, July 4 (Reuters) A revised response plan for the May earthquake that killed more than 5,700 people and left many homeless on Indonesia's Java island is about 60 million dollars short of the 80 million dollars needed, the United Nations said today.

The 6.3 magnitude quake struck at dawn on May 27, hitting the ancient royal city of Yogyakarta and areas of Central Java province the hardest.

Hundreds of thousands had their homes destroyed or damaged, and meeting their needs is one of the major challenges of the emergency and early recovery efforts, according to a statement from the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

''To date, 141,796 tarpaulins or tents have been distributed,'' but that covers only 37 per cent of the number of homeless families, the statement said.

While material in the pipeline should take coverage to 72 percent by the end of July, a ''further 100,000 tarpaulins are still urgently required''.

Over the longer term ''more durable transitional shelter/housing is still needed to bridge the gap between emergency shelter and permanent housing'', OCHA said.

In the area of water and sanitation, ''current assistance is only fulfilling a fraction of the overall needs'' due to the quake's disruption of water supply, the report added.

It put total funding requirements for the revised plan at 80.1 million dollars, of which 19.1 million dollars has already been received or committed.

The U.N.'s plan covers activities for the next five months.

Indonesia's vast archipelago is on the Pacific ''Ring of Fire'' marked by frequent seismic and volcanic activity.

REUTERS SRS PC1718