More than 2,900 people have died, most of them in hard-to-reach mountainous areas.

While orderly camps of large, government-issued tents and military field hospitals have sprung up in some of the larger towns, parts of the rugged region are still surviving on donations left on roadsides by citizens.

It is the North African country's deadliest earthquake since 1960, when a tremor was estimated to have killed at least 12,000 people, and the most powerful since at least 1900.

Relief workers face the challenge of reaching the worst-affected villages in the High Atlas, a rugged mountain range where settlements are often remote and where many houses crumbled.

The mosque was built where the Almohad dynasty established its first capital in the Atlas valley before going on to seize Marrakech, proclaim its leader Caliph, and march on across the region propelled by religious zeal.

Most deaths are said to be in mountain areas that are hard to reach.

Indonesia straddles the so-called 'Pacific Ring of Fire', a highly seismically active zone, where different plates on the Earth's crust meet and create a large number of earthquakes and volcano activity.

The epicenter of the quake was at a depth of 33km on land.

There were no fatalities, even though the earthquake was felt as far as Rennes in Brittany in the north and two aftershocks were recorded on Saturday morning.

No casualties or major damage were reported although operations of the three elevated railway lines in Manila were stopped.

Weather officials warn residents of possible aftershocks and landslides in the days ahead but say there is no risk of a tsunami.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno says the government has set up a disaster countermeasures office in a crisis management centre headed by the prime minister in response to the earthquake.