Two days after Indonesia hosted a global summit on the catastrophe, an array of leaders headed to second worst-hit Sri Lanka where a long-running ethnic war has cast a pall over relief efforts.

"We came to listen and learn today, Mr. Wolfensohn and I... and that is what we did," said UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as he toured tsunami-ravaged areas of the island with World Bank president James Wolfensohn.

Annan, who has appealed for nearly billion dollars immediately to save survivors left bereft by the killer waves, pledged support for reconstruction in Sri Lanka.

Wolfensohn said the Bank could raise its financial aid to tsunami-affected regions of Asia to one billion dollars if required.

Death toll revised

Indonesia, which was hardest hit by the tsunamis, revised down its death toll to 104 055 on Saturday, from a figure of 107 039 given earlier in the day, the social affairs ministry said, blaming the mistake on overlapping tallies from different districts.

The Indonesian and US militaries have been racing against time to reach survivors in Aceh province, parts of which are so remote injured people were trickling in for their first treatment almost two weeks after the tragedy.

Sumantri, a 24-year-old farmer, broke his leg after being tossed several kilometers from his house but did not go to the hospital until Thursday, and by then had caught potentially deadly tetanus.

"My father and my mother are lost. I don't know what I'm going to do," he said as he was tended to at the Zainul Abidin general hospital in the provincial capital Banda Aceh.

The tsunami poured mud and debris 1.5 meters high into the two-storey hospital, tossing up beds, filing cabinets and desks.

Up to 30 of the hospital's 100 doctors and 10 percent of its nurses are listed as missing, and virtually all the others failed to show up to work when the hospital reopened.

Freeze debt payments

Meanwhile the Group of Seven world's leading industrialized countries agreed to support the suspension of debt payments by countries affected by the disaster, Britain said.

The freeze would apply to bilateral debt between countries, rather than debt owed to institutions, although the G7 also called on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to assess the victim nations' needs.

The proposal by the group would be put to all creditor nations at a meeting of the Paris Club in the French capital next Wednesday, according to Britain, which holds the rotating G7 presidency.

Some four billion dollars have been pledged by governments alone to help tsunami-hit countries.

But relief workers caution that promises often do not become reality and that more cash will be needed for the long-term rehabilitation of survivors.

The International Federation of the Red Cross says it alone needs $556-million to provide long-term aid to victims of the tsunami disaster. Victims are agonising over how to start their lives from scratch, with money needed for everything from new fishing nets to new schools.