"According to new estimates following the most recent flooding in Sindh... at least 10 million people are currently without shelter," said Maurizio Giuliano, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs spokesman.

He said the floods in Pakistan had become "one of the worst humanitarian disasters in UN history, in terms of number of people that we have to assist and also the area covered."

Giuliano's assessment was echoed by Valerie Amos, the new UN humanitarian chief, who arrived in Pakistan Tuesday.

"The floods here in Pakistan have affected almost 21 million people -- it is one of the biggest humanitarian crises the world has seen," said Amos, who takes over from UN John Holmes.

River defences in Pakistan's flood-hit south were bolstered Tuesday in a bid to save two towns from catastrophic flooding, six weeks after monsoons caused devastating floods in the country's worst disaster in living memory.

Advancing floodwaters continue to threaten the towns of Johi and Dadu in Sindh province, with 19 of its 23 districts deluged and 2.8 million people displaced, according to provincial authorities.

"Armed forces and irrigation officials are racing against time to save Johi and Dadu," said provincial irrigation minister Jam Saifullah Dharejo.

"Floodwaters are increasing pressure on Johi embankment, while the raging waters are just five kilometres (three miles) away from Dadu city," Dharejo said.

Dadu and Johi are about 320 kilometres north of the main southern port city of Karachi.

Meanwhile, the UN's development chief for Asia said the world must respond to Pakistan's crisis and help it rebuild to secure hearts and minds in the insurgency-wracked nation.

Helping Pakistanis rebuild homes and businesses, reduced to rubble by the unprecedented deluge, will be even more important to long-term regional and global stability, said UN Assistant Secretary General Ajay Chhibber.

"Now that the water has receded in large parts... what's clear from these visits is that the early recovery needs to start now," said Chhibber during a visit Monday to the militant-hit northwest.

"If there's greater unrest in Pakistan it will have much greater regional and global implications.

"This is a country that is a very large, very important country in the region, a very large, very important country in the globe, so that battle for the hearts and minds of people here is very important."

Global cash pledges have been slow coming to bolster rescue and relief efforts, with more than 21 million people affected by the floods.

As Chhibber toured part of Nowshera town flattened by surging waters last month, one villager, Amanat Khan, stood helplessly next to a pile of broken bricks and wood that was his home until the floods smashed it to pieces.

"We're completely paralysed with shock," said the 42-year-old father of four, who also lost his job in a medical store to the waters.

"I trust in God Almighty he will help me but right now I have no idea how to rebuild my life."

Last week the UN said, that despite an improvement in aid donations after a visit to Pakistan by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in mid-August, extra pledges had "almost stalled" since a week earlier.

An initial relief appeal has been about two-thirds funded, and Chhibber said a second appeal would be launched on September 17, seeking help for the next steps in Pakistan's recovery.

Hollywood star Angelina Jolie arrived in northwest Pakistan Tuesday with the UN's refugee agency to draw world attention to the crisis.

Jolie, the 34-year-old actress and roving envoy for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, visited communities where 1.7 million Afghan refugees live.

"From what I understand the situation is on a scale that we have not really seen the likes of. It's on a huge scale," Jolie told reporters at a camp for the displaced.

The floods have killed 1,760 people but disaster officials have said the number of deaths is likely to rise "significantly" when the missing are accounted for.

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