SOUTH Wales families were warned today they face a long wait before hearing whether their relatives died in the terrorist attack on the United States.

Welsh secretary Paul Murphy alerted South Wales to be prepared to read about Welsh casualties, as Gwent MPs reassembled at Parliament for a crisis debate.

But Mr Murphy said it could be some time before the final death toll was known.

"Identification is going to take some time because of the way in which people died," he told the South Wales Argus just before Parliament was recalled this morning.

"When names are identified, families will be told first."

Mr Murphy added: "Foreign secretary Jack Straw has indicated that up to one hundred people from Britain have lost their lives in this disaster and the number could eventually be in the mid hundreds.

"If that is the case there are bound to be some Welsh casualties, either among those who worked in the World Trade Centre or who were visiting it."

Officials have warned Mr Murphy that with a death toll in the mid hundreds, the number of Welsh casualties could be in double figures.

"Under the law of averages, there are bound to be Welsh casualties," Mr Murphy said.

Mr Murphy has been alarmed by the number of people who have contacted the helpline set up by the Foreign Office to help distressed relatives seeking news of loved ones in the United States.

Some 14,000 people have contacted it and Mr Murphy said the calls came from across the country.

The Foreign Office has promised the government will pay the hospital bills of any British citizens injured in the disaster who are not covered by insurance.

It will also meet the cost of flying bodies home.

Foreign Office minister Peter Hain, MP for Neath, said today: "We stand shoulder to shoulder with the United States."

Mr Murphy was today due to represent Wales at a service at St Paul's Cathedral, in London, which is to be attended by the Queen.

The Welsh secretary, who has experience of dealing with terrorism in his former job as Northern Ireland minister, has been appointed to the Cabinet's Civil Contingencies Committee, which is meeting daily to review the heightened security threat.