The death toll from Ukraine’s worst floods in two hundred years climbed to thirty while swollen rivers in the region also claimed the lives of three people in neighbouring Moldova.

The country's parliament responded with the allocation of some 5.8 billion hryvna ($1.2 billion) to disaster relief efforts and also approved President Viktor Yushchenko’s decree declaring six regions disaster areas.

Five days of heavy rain in the southwestern Carpathian Mountains caused the Prut and Dniestr rivers to overflow.

Hundreds of towns and villages have been flooded, more than 40,000 houses affected and around 20,000 people were evacuated.

Ukraine's Emergency Minister Volodymyr Shandra said 23 people had drowned, three had been hit by lightning, three had been electrocuted and one was killed in a small landslide.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko had called for an emergency session of parliament, which was on summer recess, to amend the state budget to allocate money for relief works.

The parliament spent six hours examining compensation proposals submitted by Mr Yushchenko and Ms Tymoshenko.

Heavy floods have also hit neighbouring Romania and Moldova.

In the Moldovan capital, Chisinau, three people were found dead after being swept away by floodwaters, an Interior Ministry official said.

Two drowned when they became trapped under cars while trying to cross a flooded road. Another was found under a bridge.

More than 100 houses had been destroyed in the storms and more than 5,000 people evacuated, the official said.

The authorities in Romania said that four people had died and more than 11,000 been evacuated.