Up to 1,000 people from the European Union are missing in Nepal and 12 are confirmed dead, nearly a week after a devastating earthquake, the head of the EU delegation to Nepal said.

Ambassador Rensje Teerink said that those unaccounted for were mostly tourists in the Langtang and Lukla areas.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan has said all 170 Irish citizens who were in Nepal at the time the earthquake struck have been accounted for.

He said that many of them had now returned to Ireland, but the department's Consular Division and Ireland's embassy in New Dehli remains in contact with a number of Irish people who are still in Nepal.

Langtang is a trekking region to the north of Kathmandu that has been hit by a huge avalanche and mudslides.

Luklais is the jumping off point for walkers and climbers making the nine-day trek to Everest base camp.

Meanwhile, the Red Cross has warned of "total devastation" in remote areas near the epicentre of Nepal's devastating earthquake as the death toll rose past 6,200.

Fresh aftershocks have made it hard for nervous survivors to return to their homes in the capital Kathmandu and elsewhere.

Disposal of the hundreds of bodies, still being found six days after the 7.9 magnitude quake devastated the Himalayan nation of 28 million people, was becoming a problem for officials who have ordered immediate cremations.

Aid was slowly beginning to reach remote towns and villages nestled in the mountains and foothills.

Many Nepalis have been sleeping in the open since Saturday's quake. According to the United Nations, 600,000 houses have been destroyed or damaged.

The country’s finance minister said Nepal would need at least $2bn (€1.78bn) to rebuild homes, hospitals, government offices and historic buildings and appealed for help from international donors.

The United Nations has said eight million people had been affected, with at least two million in need of tents, water, food and medicines over the next three months.

A home ministry official said the death toll had risen to 6,204, with 13,924 injured.

Officials have said the chances of finding any more survivors were fading, even though a boy and a woman had yesterday been pulled from the rubble where they had lain trapped for five days.

As rescuers slowly started reaching outlying areas, witnesses reported seeing 70 to 80% of buildings severely damaged in Chautara, northeast of Kathmandu.

Anger over the pace of the rescue has flared in some areas, with Nepalis accusing the government of being too slow to distribute international aid that has flooded into the country.

It has yet to reach many in need, particularly in areas hard to reach given the quake damage, poor weather and aftershocks.

Tensions between foreigners and Nepalis desperate to be evacuated have also surfaced.

In Ashrang village in Gorkha, one of the worst-hit districts about four hours by road west of Kathmandu, hundreds of villagers were living outdoors with little food and water even as boxes of biscuits, juice and sacks of rice and wheat were stored in a nearby government office.

Nepal is also appealing to foreign governments for more helicopters help the 20 at work in rescue operations.

In the Himalayas, climbing is set to reopen on Mount Everest next week after damage caused by avalanches triggered by the quake is repaired, although many have abandoned their ascents.

A massive avalanche killed 18 climbers and sherpa mountain guides at the Everest base camp.