08 January 2005
By BBC


Aid is being distributed, and no disease has been reported
The UN says it is optimistic that none of the survivors of the Asian tsunami will lose their lives due to hunger.

Jim Morris, head of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said he expected food aid to reach almost all survivors within the next seven days.

More than 150,000 people have been killed across Asia. The UN has warned that the toll could rise further if more died from hunger and disease.

But no major outbreaks have been reported so far.

The BBC's Matt Frei says officials in a number of refugee camps in Sri Lanka have told him that disease is being contained and falling.

A speedboat on the pavement

In other developments:

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan tours devastated coastal areas of Sri Lanka, where more than 30,000 people have died
Our job is to get food to people to save lives, to address the special nutritional issues relating to women who are pregnant, nursing, and to young children

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announces a grant of $40m for immediate relief and rehabilitation work in the Indian islands of Andaman and Nicobar

President George W Bush urges Americans to keep contributing to the relief effort

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra calls for European tax breaks on Thai products, rather than financial assistance.
Good co-operation

The WFP head told the BBC that aid had reached "nearly everyone who has been harmed by the disaster".

"Through our partners, a good many NGOs, we've found ways to get food to everyone who's in need," he said.

He said the agency was feeding 750,000 people in Sri Lanka, and 130,000-150,000 in Indonesia - primarily in Aceh province, the worst-hit by the earthquake and the tsunami on 26 December.

"That number will go above 300,000 in the next few days, probably to 400,000 in the next five or six days," Mr Morris said.

"Our job is to get food to people to save lives, to address the special nutritional issues relating to women who are pregnant, nursing, and to young children."

Mr Morris said he was optimistic the agency would have everything it needed - an estimated $280m "for food for the next six months, to feed two million people and for the logistics transport component".

Food distribution to Indonesia, the worst-hit country, is expected to speed up following the opening of a humanitarian air hub at Subang near the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, on Friday.

It takes almost twice as long to reach the hard-hit province of Aceh from the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, as it does from Subang.