UN refugee agency airlifts aid to NW Pakistan

* UN refugee agency airlifts supplies to Pakistan

* Urges international support for displaced

GENEVA, May 11 (Reuters) - The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR is airlifting tonnes of additional emergency supplies to northwest Pakistan to help cope with the unfolding humanitarian disaster there, UNHCR said on Monday.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres appealed for international support for the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by fighting between the government and Taliban in the Swat Valley.

The fighting has sparked a civilian exodus from the former tourist destination. In recent days 360,000 people have left their homes and in all about 500,000 are expected fo flee, joining about 600,000 people displaced earlier from Swat and other areas. [ID:nSP434983]

Guterres said many people were arriving with only what they could carry on their backs.

"These are the same people who for decades showed great generosity to millions of Afghan refugees," he said.

"Now it is time for the international community to show them the same generosity by supporting humanitarian programmes for the Pakistani displaced," the former Portuguese prime minister said in a statement.