The presidents of Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala are to meet in El Salvador today to map out a joint strategy for rebuilding after a disaster that, according to one United Nations official, set regional development back 20 years.
Their meeting comes as rescuers in Honduras are battling to find survivors of two post-hurricane landslides which swept away at least two rural villages. It is not known how many might have died, but up to 50,000 people are estimated to have been isolated by the latest natural disaster.
Mitch, the deadliest Atlantic storm in 200 years, has killed an estimated 11,000 people in Central America and left 13,000 others missing and feared dead.
In Europe, EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels today are to hold crisis talks over the devastation wrought by Mitch, the German foreign ministry said yesterday.
Germany also pledged further financial aid to the region and said it was considering a request from countries affected by the hurricane for debt repayments to be waived. The British Chancellor, Mr Gordon Brown, called for a new international fund for countries which faced a "huge breakdown" as a result of natural disaster. Part of the help could be a moratorium on debt payments by countries like Honduras and Nicaragua, which are involved in the Highly Indebted Poor Countries initiative, under which they can qualify for longer-term debt relief.
In remote north-eastern Nicaragua - where dense rain forest and isolation have preserved Miskito Indian culture - the British navy was set to renew its effort to rescue some 900 Miskitos on top of a hill surrounded by floodwaters from the Coco River. On Saturday, a helicopter from HMS Sheffield tried to locate the Indians, who have been without food for about a week, but the mission was foiled by bad weather.
In Madrid, Spanish Red Cross official Mr Javier Rubio said 3.5 billion pesetas had been collected for the victims, but Red Cross president Mr Juan Manuel Suarez del Toro expected the total to exceed 4.5 billion pesetas (£21 million).
Former US president Mr George Bush arrived in Honduras yesterday. Mr Bush flew into the capital, Tegucigalpa, for a one-day unofficial visit. And another former US president, Mr Jimmy Carter, visited Nicaragua on Friday, while US first lady, Mrs Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Mrs Tipper Gore, wife of Vice-President Mr Al Gore, plan to visit the region next week.