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U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for "massive" international support for flood-ravaged Pakistan while visiting the country on Friday, while Islamabad put the cost of flood-related damage at $30 billion.

Record monsoon rains and glacier melt in northern mountains have triggered floods that have swept away houses, roads, railway tracks, bridges, livestock and crops, and killed more about 1,400 people.

Huge areas of the country are inundated and hundreds of thousands have been forced from their homes. The government says the lives of nearly 33 million people have been disrupted. Both the government and Guterres have blamed the flooding on climate change.

"I call on the international community that Pakistan needs massive financial support, as according to initial estimates the losses are around $30 billion", Guterres told a joint news conference in the capital Islamabad, after meeting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on his two-day visit.

Sharif said "Pakistan needs an infinite amount of funding" for its relief effort, adding the country "will remain in trouble as long as it doesn't receive sufficient international assistance".

Pakistan expects to cut its GDP growth projection for the financial year 2022-2023 to 3% from 5% due to the losses, planning minister Ahsan Iqbal told an earlier news conference.

The United Nations has launched an appeal for $160 million in aid to help Pakistan cope with the disaster.

As well as meeting Sharif and foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Guterres will tour affected areas during his visit.

Bhutto-Zardari told a news conference after the meeting that Pakistan was waiting for the rescue and relief phase of the crisis to end before calling a donor conference to work on reconstruction.

"When we have a 100km lake that has developed in the middle of Pakistan, tell me how big of a drain can I build to manage this?" he said.

"There is no man-made structure that can evacuate this water."

In July and August, Pakistan recorded 391 mm (15.4 inches) of rainfall - nearly 190% more than the 30-year average. The southern province of Sindh has been overwhelmed, with 466% more rain than average.

Guterres said the world needed to understand the impact of climate change on low-income countries.

"It is essential for the international community to realise this, especially the countries who have contributed more to climate change," he said.

The World Health Organization has said more than 6.4 million people need humanitarian support in flooded areas.

The cost of clearing up and rebuilding after the floods has added to concerns about whether the country can afford to keep paying its debts.

Over the last three weeks its government bonds have fallen sharply, to almost half their face value in some cases , as international investors have begun to fear a default. (Reuters)

 Sri Lanka's president on Friday asked officials to resolve obstacles to projects backed by India, a government statement said, without specifying what the obstacles were.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe chaired a discussion on the progress of several development projects under Indian investment, and told officials "to take steps to resolve the obstacles that have arisen in the progress of several projects in Sri Lanka under Indian investments".

 Sri Lanka's president on Friday asked officials to resolve obstacles to projects backed by India, a government statement said, without specifying what the obstacles were.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe chaired a discussion on the progress of several development projects under Indian investment, and told officials "to take steps to resolve the obstacles that have arisen in the progress of several projects in Sri Lanka under Indian investments". (Reuters)

 The U.S. Army's Pacific commander, General Charles Flynn, said he is in no rush to withdraw rocket launchers and other equipment from a Japanese army base at the edge of the East China Sea even after the joint training they were used in ended.

"Some of the equipment we are just going to leave here" until the next joint drills, he told Reuters on a visit on Thursday to the Japanese Ground Self Defense Force base on Amami Oshima, part of an island chain stretching toward Taiwan.

"It's an opportunity for us to keep capabilities forward," he added.

Two more joint training exercises scheduled this year mean that equipment could remain in Amami for several more months. It includes two High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) that can fire projectiles up to 500 km (310 miles), and that Washington has also given Ukraine to help it fight Russia.

Using training exercises such as the annual Orient Shield drill that just ended may be an easy and quick way for Washington to redeploy some forces in East Asia, even if only temporarily, as tensions with China over Taiwan grow.

"It's an opportunity for us to keep capabilities forward," he added.

Two more joint training exercises scheduled this year mean that equipment could remain in Amami for several more months. It includes two High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) that can fire projectiles up to 500 km (310 miles), and that Washington has also given Ukraine to help it fight Russia.

Using training exercises such as the annual Orient Shield drill that just ended may be an easy and quick way for Washington to redeploy some forces in East Asia, even if only temporarily, as tensions with China over Taiwan grow.

Last month it unveiled a plan to field longer range missiles as part of a substantial defence spending increase that will also provide more money for joint drills with U.S. forces.

"Increasing the scale, the complexity, the size, the duration of the training that our forces must do together is probably a worthy investment from both the U.S. and Japanese forces," Flynn said at a media roundtable in Tokyo on Friday.

Another urgent priority for Japan, say military experts, is to increase munitions stockpiles.

"What you are seeing in Europe is a protracted fight, so therefore sustainment is an incredibly important wartime function," Flynn said. "It would be in everyone's interest to look at their stocks and locations, he added. (Reuters)

U.S. development agency USAID chief Samantha Power on Friday announced $20 million in additional help for flood-hit Pakistan at a press conference in Islamabad. (Reuters)