The Philippines needs almost a third of a billion US dollars in aid to help thousands of people hit by a huge typhoon that raked the country last week, the United Nations' humanitarian chief says.
"We've just launched an action plan focusing on the areas of food, health, sanitation, shelter, debris removal and also protection of the most vulnerable with the government and I very much hope our donors will be generous," Valerie Amos said on Tuesday in Manila.
"That plan is for $US301 million ($A322.41 million)."
Amos launched the "flash appeal" for cash, as the US and Britain deployed warships carrying thousands of soldiers to assist in a vast operation to help nearly 10 million people affected by Friday's super typhoon.
After famished survivors ransacked aid convoys, Philippines authorities deployed armoured vehicles and set up checkpoints in the devastated city of Tacloban on Tuesday to stop desperate victims raiding food and medical supplies.
Almost 10 per cent of the Philippines' population have been affected after Super Typhoon Haiyan smashed into the nation's central islands, leaving at least 10,000 people feared dead while 660,000 have lost their homes, according to the UN.
The Pentagon said the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, with 5000 sailors and more than 80 aircraft aboard, will head to the United States' close Asian ally from Hong Kong to join 180 US Marines assisting in the humanitarian efforts on the ground.
Britain boosted its aid to STG10 million ($A17.17 million) as Prime Minister David Cameron said HMS Daring, a destroyer, would sail to the Philippines "at full speed" from its current deployment in Singapore, joined by a Royal Air Force C-17 transport plane.
Dead bodies still litter the wreckage across devastated communities in the central islands, with whole districts of coastal towns reduced to piles of splintered wood.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the aid effort "must expand urgently in the days ahead", while the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement appealed for nearly $US95 million to provide 100,000 families with food, water and shelter over 18 months.
As the global effort mobilised, friends and foes alike among the Philippines' neighbours offered assistance, with Taiwan and China promising to put aside their differences to join in the relief effort.
The Australian government pledged $A10 million, with a team of medics set to leave Wednesday to join disaster experts already on the ground.
Tokyo said it would supply $US10 million ($A10.71 million) in grants to provide evacuees with emergency shelters and other assistance, as reports said Japan could be readying to dispatch its self defence forces to help in the relief effort.
About 100 Japanese citizens in the Philippines are still unaccounted for after the typhoon.
Indonesia, another Southeast Asian nation frequently hit by natural disasters, pledged $US2 million in cash and emergency supplies, with a Hercules aircraft set to depart on Wednesday carrying food, medicines, water filters and generators.
China, where seven people were reported killed by the typhoon, is to give $100,000 towards the aid effort, with state-run Global Times newspaper saying Tuesday that a territorial row between China and the Philippines should not affect such decisions.
"It's a must to aid typhoon victims in the Philippines," the paper, which is close to the ruling Communist party, said in an editorial.
"China's international image is of vital importance to its interests. If it snubs Manila this time, China will suffer great losses", it added.
And despite a diplomatic row triggered by the fatal shooting of a 65-year-old crew member of a Taiwanese fishing boat on May 9 by a Filipino coastguard patrol, Taiwan sent two C-130 Hercules transport aircraft carrying relief goods and pledged $200,000 in cash.
Vietnam, itself faced with mass evacuations as a weakened Haiyan swung through its territory on Monday, has offered aid worth $US100,000 and vowed to stand by the Philippine people.
The Philippine Red Cross on Tuesday issued a heartfelt thanks for the international support directed at the country.
"We can only say that we love you for all the things you have done for us and are doing for us," Corazon Alma G De Leon, secretary of the board of governors told a media conference in Sydney.
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