The Charity Commissioners are to be asked by British overseas aid charities to permit the use of funds collected for the Pakistan cyclone disaster for the relief of Pakistan refugees in India.

The British Relief Consortium, which brings together the major independent charities, met yesterday in Oxford and decided to send a deputation to the commissioners either today or tomorrow.

Up to £1m collected for cyclone relief earlier this year remains unspent, as the Pakistan Government has withheld facilities to the consortium and refused it permission to operate. The Charity Commissioners have already said these funds cannot legally be used for refugee relief.

Meanwhile it will soon be impossible to separate the effects of the civil war in East Pakistan from the effects of the cyclone, in the consortium's view.