President Gloria Arroyo said Wednesday the Philippines deserved preferential loans and other financial help to recover from recent deadly storms because it had become a victim of climate change.

Arroyo said the Philippines would need much more money to fund the relief and reconstruction effort following the recent record rains that left more than 710 people dead and caused billions of dollars in damage.

Speaking at a business forum, Arroyo said when the country sought foreign help it will stress: "We are not a culprit of climate change. We are a victim".

"Victims are compensated, not penalised with high interest rates and conditionalities," she said, adding that the Philippines had made a tiny contribution to climate change.

Arroyo said the government's first priority would be to secure grants and concessional loans.

"Commercial borrowings either through bonds or other instruments should be the last financing option," she said.

The Philippine president said she had created a public-private commission that would soon oversee a "pledging session" of potential donors for funds.

She gave no figures on how much money the country needed.

But, speaking at the same forum, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said the agriculture sector suffered 18.4 billion pesos (397 million dollars) in damage with half a million hectares (1.23 million acres) of rice lands flooded.

Damage to infrastructure exceeded five billion pesos (107 million dollars), other officials said.

The Philippines' horrific stretch of weather began on September 26, when tropical storm Ketsana dumped the heaviest rains in more than four decades on the nation's capital, Manila, and surrounding areas.

At least 337 people were killed in the storm, according to the government, and parts of the city are expected to remain flooded for months.

Exactly one week after Ketsana, Typhoon Parma hit farther north on the Philippines' main island of Luzon.

It then hovered over the area as a tropical storm for a week, causing massive flooding and landslides that killed at least 375 people.

UN climate chief Yvo de Boer had said climate change increased the severity of Ketsana.