The British public are still putting their hands into their pockets despite the increasing number of appeals for them to donate money to victims of natural disasters, Oxfam said yesterday.

The charity said the country was not suffering from compassion fatigue, with statistics showing British people are, in fact, giving more money to appeals than ever.

Donations following the Boxing Day tsunami should not be used as a yardstick to judge generosity because it was on a different scale to other crises this year, Oxfam said.

At peak times, £1m an hour was donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee's appeal following the tsunami, which claimed about 300,000 lives. It ultimately raised more than £300m.

The committee's latest appeal in the wake of last weekend's earthquake in Pakistan has so far raised £12m, with £2m donated in the first 24 hours.

A DEC spokeswoman said this week that the reaction had been brilliant and said there was no sign of fatigue.

Oxfam claimed compassion fatigue was an unfounded media myth.

Its director of planning, Edward Fox, said: "Oxfam has seen no signs of compassion fatigue. In fact, we have seen an increase in both the number of people giving and the average amount they donate. The British public continue to astound us with their compassion and generosity."

Oxfam said statistics show Britons are still more than prepared to put their hands in their pockets and that their call centre had had to more than triple in size.

They also claim twice as many people donated money in the first three days of the earthquake appeal than did so at the beginning of the appeal for the starving in Niger.

And figures apparently show that the average amount donated to victims of the earthquake exceeds the average from previous disasters.

The UK is providing two Puma helicopters to assist with the relief effort in Pakistan, the Government announced yesterday.

A Department for International Development spokes-man said the helicopters would be used for carrying the injured to hospitals and also for airlifting emergency relief supplies. He said that operating costs would be met from the £1m the department has already committed to the Red Cross for the aid effort.