Albania hopes for 400 mln euros for quake recovery

Prime Minister Edi Rama warned Monday that Albania will be "in trouble" if a donor conference does not pledge at least 400 million euros to help it recover from a powerful earthquake.

The impoverished Balkan state was hit by a 6.4-magnitude quake in November, killing 51 people, leaving 17,000 homeless and creating a recovery bill of more than a billion euros ($1.08 billion), according to an official assessment.

As major donors as well as UN agencies, assembled in Brussels to gather pledges of financial support, Rama said he had been impressed by the speed of the EU response.

"The assessment of the post-disaster report which was prepared together with the World Bank, United Nations and the EU is quite frightening, because it says that the damages exceed a billion euros," Rama told reporters.

"For a country with a GDP of 13.5 billion it is quite a big sum and it's beyond our human possibilities to address all that need alone."