Pakistan flooding
© AFP/File, A. MajeedSome 5.3 million people have been affected by this year's flooding in Pakistan
More than 200 people have been killed by devastating rains in Pakistan, which is still struggling to rebuild after last year's worst floods in living memory, officials said Monday.

Pakistan, a nuclear-armed state suffering appalling levels of Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked violence, saw 21 million people affected in the 2010 flooding that killed 1,750 people and cost the economy $10 billion.

Aid agencies have accused the government of failing to invest in adequate prevention measures and vast swathes of farmland have been inundated for a second year in the southern province of Sindh, the nation's breadbasket.

The situation this year was even worse than last year, one official said.

"So far, 209 people have been killed and 5.3 million affected," Zafar Qadir, head of the country's disaster management authority, told reporters.

"Around 1.7 million acres of agricultural land has also been affected by the rains and floods."

Pakistan, which already relies on billions of dollars of international aid, has called for further assistance to counter the latest disaster.

China, Pakistan's most trusted foreign ally, said it had pledged $4.7 million for urgent humanitarian assistance and its ambassador on Monday handed over a cheque worth $50,000 to the disaster management authority.

The authority said it was working to quantify "huge" losses with cash crops such as sugar cane, banana and cotton now under water.

The government was last year pilloried by flood victims who accused civilian authorities of a delayed and inadequate response to the disaster.

A special parliamentary committee, formed by the prime minister to coordinate relief efforts this time round, said it was facing huge problems.

"We have provided 80,000 family food packages and 45,000 tents. We have procured 10,000 more tents but there are serious distribution problems," Qamar Zaman Kaira, a member of the committee, told reporters.

"The helicopters are unable to fly in the continuous rains and roads have been flooded. The crisis is worse than last year in Sindh province. There are huge losses," he said.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said recent rains in Sindh were nearly two-and-a-half times normal levels, and inundated 4.1 million acres, including 1.7 million acres of crops.

He said 700,000 houses had been damaged, 150,000 people in relief camps needed immediate assistance and that 64,000 livestock had been lost.

The UN children's agency said up to 2.5 million children in southern Pakistan had been affected by the floods.