Peshawar, Pakistan - Anger was growing Wednesday among the survivors of Pakistan's deadly floods over the slow relief work in the devastated areas.

Devastating floods have killed an estimated 1,500 people and displaced more than 3 million over the past week, leaving many short of essential supplies.

Hundreds of people on Wednesday held a protest rally in Nowshera, one of the worst hit districts in the north-western province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, chanting slogans against the government for failing to supply them with food and much-needed medicines.

The demonstrators blocked a highway and pelted stones at passing vehicles.

'We are sitting here empty handed, no money and no food,' said flood victim Jalal Khan in Nowshera, located some 35 kilometres east of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's provincial capital Peshawar.

'Our children are dying but the hospitals have no medicines, not even the vaccine for cholera.'

The government and aid organizations said they were distributing packets of food and medicines in the affected areas. But the refugees complained that the aid was insufficient, and not all was getting through to those in need.

Thousands of troops and volunteers were hampered from reaching the flood-hit areas by damaged roads and bridges. Many areas, particularly in the mountainous Swat valley, remained inaccessible despite the receding waters.

President Asif Ali Zardari has also come under heavy criticism from the flood-affected population as well opposition parties for visiting France and Britain while the country saw its worst flooding for 81 years.

'What sort of man he is. He has no heart, no sympathy for his own people,' said Abdullah Jaan in Nowshehra. 'We are dying here from floods, hunger and diseases and he is visiting his palaces in Paris and London that he has bought by sucking the blood of this poor nation.'

He was referring to Zardari's visit to his family's stately home in northern France. The president stayed at the 16th-century chateau for two hours before flying to London.

The assistance efforts were further complicated by the fact that the floodwaters are streaming southward and pouring into the 3,200-kilometre Indus River, devastating agricultural land and homes in the provinces of Punjab and Sindh.

Over 200,000 people were being evacuated from the Indus River bed in Sindh where an estimated 1 million people were feared to be affected by the waters, said Saleh Farooqi, the head of Provincial Disaster Management.

The Pakistan Army said Tuesday that it had moved 54,000 people to higher ground in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces.

The World Food Programme believes that 1.8 million people would require food supplies in the next six months after the floods washed millions of acres of crops and destroyed food stores in many areas.

The UN and several countries have pledges millions of dollars in aid.

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