The North Korean Committee for the Implementation of the June 15 Declaration -- named after the historic inter-Korean summit in 2000 -- expressed its gratitude for South Koreans' efforts to help flood victims.

"We hope that the relief aid, instead of instant noodles or clothing, should be mainly composed of construction materials such as cement and steel, construction vehicles as well as food, blankets and medicines," the committee said.

"We request your side to inform other groups (of what we want)."

The request was contained in a letter faxed to the committee's South Korean counterpart.

The committee also thanked its southern counterpart and other South Korean civilian groups "for their efforts to help overcome the losses inflicted by the heavy rains."

It was the first time the communist state had asked for help from South Korea since last month's heavy rain. Up to 10,000 people are dead or missing, according to South Korean aid group Good Friends.

The North had rejected an aid offer from the South's Red Cross after Seoul suspended official government assistance in a dispute over the missile tests.

Lee Jae-Gyu, spokesman for the South's committee, said it was noteworthy that Pyongyang made a public appeal for aid from the South despite chills in ties caused by the North's missile tests and drive for nuclear weapons.

"Pyongyang knows well that it is beyond the means of private aid groups to meet such demands for construction vehicles and materials. This is an indirect appeal for assistance and help from the government and business firms," he said.

He said the head of the South's committee, Paik Nak-Chung, would urge the government to resume its aid when he meets Unification Minister Lee Jong-Seok later Wednesday.

"Minister Lee and other ministry officials have been meeting with NGOs to listen to public opinions about the issue of government aid to the North," a senior ministry official told AFP.

South Korea's government on July 8 indefinitely postponed crucial food and fertilizer aid to the North in response to its missile tests three days earlier.

It shelved 100,000 tonnes of fertilizer aid and 500,000 tonnes of rice aid pending any breakthrough on the missile issue.

Last week a Seoul-based Buddhist relief agency sent flour, instant noodles and clothing -- the first shipment of emergency aid from South Korea to the North since the flooding.

Serious floods helped cause a famine in the mid-1990s in which aid groups say some two million North Koreans died.

The country still cannot afford to feed its 23 million people. Damage to farmland from the latest flooding has sparked concerns that chronic food shortages may worsen again this year.

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