The death count soared to more than 80,000 and aid officials said it is likely to surpass 100,000.

With tens of thousands of people still missing, Peter Ress, operations support chief for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said the figure for the dead and missing would be ``absolutely enormous''. ``I would not be surprised that we are over 100,000 dead when we start seeing what's happened in, particularly, the Nicobar and the Andaman Islands,'' he said.

On that, a United Nations official said the toll in Indonesia alone could reach a staggering 80,000. ``I would say we are probably talking about somewhere in the order of 80,000 people - 50,000 to 80,000 people - that would be my educated guess,'' said Michael Elmquist, head of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs for Indonesia.

``It's a guess based on the relation between the numbers we have so far and our experience from other earthquake disasters,'' he said.

Alarmingly, the Red Cross and Red Crescent reported that more than 500,000 were injured. The federation has so far been unable to assess the total number of missing people. Referring to the search for thousands of tourists and locals missing from beach resorts of southern Thailand, including 2,000 Scandinavians, Accor hotel group chairman Jean-Marc Espalioux said: ``We have little hope, except for individual miracles.''

Indonesia's official death toll stood at 45,268, but authorities said this did not include a full count from Sumatra's west coast.

Accounts of miracle escapes came from around the region, including a London woman telling

how a group of youngsters at a Phuket beach were saved when an elephant trainer placed them on the animal's back and led them to safety before the giant wave struck.

But there were few reports of such escapes in India, where the death toll rose to nearly 7,000. Not included in the toll are some 8,000 missing and feared dead on India's remote Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Sri Lanka put its toll on Wednesday at nearly 22,500. Thailand said it had more than 1,800 dead and a total of more than 300 were killed in Malaysia, Burma, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Somalia, Tanzania and Kenya.

In Sri Lanka, four aircraft arrived, bringing a surgical hospital from Finland, a water purification plant from Germany, doctors and medicine from Japan and aid workers from Britain.

Supplies that included 175 tonnes of rice and 100 doctors reached Sumatra's Banda Aceh. But with aid not arriving quickly enough, desperate people in towns across Sumatra stole whatever food they could find, officials said.

Widespread looting also was reported in Thailand's devastated resort islands of Phuket and Phi Phi, where European and Australian tourists left valuables behind in wrecked hotels when they fled - or were swept away.

An international airlift was under way to ferry critical aid and medicine to Phuket and to take home shellshocked travellers. Jets from France and Australia were among the first to touch down at the island's airport. Greece, Italy, Germany and Sweden planned similar flights.

Along India's southern coast, paramedics began vaccinating 65,000 tsunami survivors in Tamil Nadu state against cholera, typhoid, hepatitis A and dysentery, said Gagandeep Singh Bedi, a top government administrator.

``We have accelerated disposing of bodies to minimise the risk of an epidemic. Also, we have started spraying bleaching powder on the beaches from where the bodies have been recovered,'' said Veera Shanmuga Moni, a top administrator of Tamil Nadu's Nagappattinam district.

The world's biggest reinsurer, Germany's Munich Re, estimated the damage to buildings and foundations in the affected regions would be at least 10 billion euros (HK$104 billion).

Donations for recovery efforts came in from all parts of the globe.

United States President George W Bush said his nation has joined with India, Australia and Japan in a coalition to co-ordinate worldwide relief and reconstruction efforts.

He promised US military manpower and long-term rebuilding assistance, and called on Americans to donate cash to relief organisations to augment the response.

ASSOCIATED PRESS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE