Iran appealed Monday for medical supplies to treat earthquake victims, and countries worldwide answered with tons of foreign relief shipments and millions in cash donations. Iran's U.N. ambassador, Kamal Kharrazi, acknowledged help from the United States and said the disaster ``may create a better atmosphere for relations between Iranian and American peoples.'' A private American relief plane was one of at least 68 that landed in Tehran on Sunday and early Monday, bringing the first overt shipment of U.S. aid to Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iran also has accepted $291,000 in U.S. government relief in the form of blankets, tents, water jugs and other supplies. A separate Red Cross charter flight left Washington carrying supplies donated by the U.S. government. Australia, Belgium, Libya and North Korea were among 26 countries announcing or sending aid. Saudi Arabia, which severed relations with Iran in April 1988, said it would send 40 planeloads of supplies in the next few days. Even Iraq, which fought Iran in the 1980-88 Persian Gulf war, offered help. British author Salman Rushdie, who Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered killed for a novel many Moslems considered offensive, pledged $8,650 for quake survivors, the British newspaper The Independent reported. The powerful quake rocked northern Iran on Thursday, killing an estimated 50,000 people and leaving at least 500,000 homeless, the Iranian U.N. mission said Monday. The mission released its latest figures with an urgent appeal for antibiotics, surgical gloves, X-ray equipment and other medical equipment. In Paris, UNESCO on Monday announced the start of a campaign to raise funds to rebuild schools wrecked by the earthquake. The director-general of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Federico Mayor, said about half of those rendered homeless by the quake were children. Communist North Korea announced Monday that it had sent a 58-member medical team and pledged $1 million in aid to victims of the quake. The Korean Central News Agency, monitored in Tokyo, said part of the aid shipment was sent on the same plane Monday as a medical team from the North Korean Red Cross. The Australian government pledged a $790,000 donation, and Belgium pledged $425,000. Sweden on Monday donated another $2.2 million above the $750,000 it pledged Friday. The money will be handled through the Red Cross, it said. Libya sent a planeload of relief aid to Tehran to help victims, the official Libyan news agency JANA reported Monday. The shipment, which arrived Sunday, contained food, medicine, tents and blankets, said the brief dispatch, monitored in Rome. An AmeriCares' chartered cargo jet carrying 42 tons of U.S. aid _ including bandages, antiseptic burn cream, and tents _ arrived in Tehran on Sunday. Iran and the United States have had no diplomatic ties since the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by Islamic militants, who held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days in 1979 and 1980.
