LIMA, Peru (AP):

Relief officials urgently appealed for more aid yesterday for survivors of a magnitude eight earthquake that shattered cities along Peru's southern coast, saying people still badly need blankets, tents and medical help.

Survivors are living on the streets in cardboard shelters under desperate, unhygienic conditions two weeks after the quake struck, said Doctors Without Borders spokesman François Dumont, speaking from the village of Guadeloupe.

"We found the town completely destroyed," Dumont told The Associated Press by telephone. "In makeshift shelters made of cardboard and bed sheets in front of their destroyed houses, families are living in cold and unhygienic conditions. They have no latrines, no drinking water and no real space to bathe."

Even things like soap are needed to prevent the spread of skin diseases, he said.

The international aid group has a 35-member team in the area with mobile clinics, and it offers psychological counselling.

40 missing persons

The earthquake that struck near Peru's central coast on August 15 killed at least 519 people, injured 1,366 and destroyed 40,000 homes, levelling the port of Pisco, a fishing city 125 miles (200 kilometres) south-east of Lima, according to Peru's Civil Defence Office. The death toll does not include at least 40 other people who are missing, the office's director of prevention, Alberto Visual, said Wednesday.

Earlier, the United Nations asked for donations of US$37 million for medical help, water, food, tents and blankets for survivors of the quake. Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the U.N.'s humanitarian affairs office, said 200,000 people need help to save their lives. Mar Mora, an adviser to the U.N. World Food Program, described a dire situation in the town of Cabeza del Toro.