(The UN Secretary General) Ban Ki-moon has urged the world to step up its support for flood-ravaged Pakistan. Mr Ban said he would never forget the suffering and destruction he’d seen and announced the UN would give an extra $10 million from its emergency fund. He was speaking after seeing for himself some of the worst-hit areas. Our correspondent Lyse Doucet traveled with Mr Ban and the Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.

Ban Ki-moon and President Zardari flew by helicopter over four districts of Punjab, the province known as this country’s bread basket. Now from the air it looks like a land of sprawling lakes. Valuable crops like sugar cane and wheat are under water. Mud houses are submerged, millions have fled. The UN says not even half the survivors are now being reached with aid. Ban Ki-moon called on the world’s donors to do much more. Unprecedented floods, he said, demand unprecedented assistance.