Romania will ask for international aid to clean up damage caused by recent floods which have killed seven people and left thousands homeless, the country's foreign minister was quoted by Reuters as saying on Thursday. Romania's southern neighbour Bulgaria earlier this week asked the European Union for 75 million euros ($91.42 million) in assistance to help areas hit by floods over the past two months. Both countries hope to join the EU in 2007. Torrential rains have swept across the region over the past few weeks, swelling rivers, inundating homes and churning up roads, hitting the larger of the two countries, Romania, particularly hard. "We will request financial support ... from countries that are members of EU, members of NATO, countries from Asia and from the Middle East," Foreign Minister Razvan Ungureanu told reporters. He did not give figures. Officials said a first estimate showed the floods, which hit 31 out of Romania's 42 counties, were worse than those in the west of the country in April and May which caused damage of nearly $600 million. --More 2308 Local Time 2008 GMT
