Bush says U.S. committed to tsunami aid to Asia

Bush says U.S. committed to tsunami aid to Asia

P. Parameswaran, Agence France-Presse/Washington

U.S. President George W. Bush on Monday underlined Washington's
longterm commitment to help rehabilitate Asia's tsunami-afflicted
economies, including providing loans to people whose livelihoods
were shattered by the disaster.

Bush gave the assurance after meeting with Secretary of State
Colin Powell, who returned from a tour of areas ravaged by the
earthquake and giant tidal waves along the Indian Ocean coast in
Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

"We're committed today and we will be committed tomorrow,"
Bush said after the meeting at the White House.

He left open the possibility of adding to the US$350 million
tsunami aid package already committed to the region, saying it
would be essential that any future money be "demand driven."

"We're now entering a second phase providing for
rehabilitation to these affected societies, as well as a
reconstruction effort."

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the
state agency in charge of providing economic and humanitarian
assistance, is arranging small loans for those whose livelihoods
had been destroyed, Bush said.

He cited as an example efforts by the agency to help provide
boats to fishermen after the disaster.

The microfinance lending program will help "get business
working as rapidly as possible at the local level, because that
provides jobs, it provides commodities in the markets for people
to buy," USAID administrator Andrew Natsios said at a media
briefing.

"We're beginning to help rebuild lives and help people get
back on their feet," Bush said, thanking USAID and American non-
governmental organizations taking part in the massive relief
effort.

Aid groups are still struggling to reach survivors of the
disaster, caused by an undersea earthquake off Sumatra on Dec. 26
that unleashed towering waves hitting nearly a dozen countries
and killing more than 156,000 people.

As many as five million people were thought to be homeless or
without food and clean water.

Bush stressed the need for greater aid coordination within the
United States and among governments to avoid duplication.

He said assistance would particularly be focused on the Aceh
region at the northern tip of the large Indonesian island of
Sumatra.

"That is the part of the world that is going to require the
most intense effort by our (government) and by the governments
around the world," he said.

Hardest-hit Indonesia's death toll stands at more than
105,000.

Powell, who spent a week in Asia assessing the damage, had
said the United States should consider providing long-term aid to
the tsunami-battered countries.

Global contributions to tsunami relief funds were now probably
more than six billion dollars, Powell estimated.

White House spokesman Scott Mcclellan said the United States
had already provided $78 million in relief assistance to affected
countries from the pledged $350 million.

The key was to provide immediate relief to victims, then
working with governments and the United Nations to "assess the
needs, the intermediate term needs and long-term need and make
sure the money that is available achieves a coordinated
objective," Bush said.

He was also due to be briefed on Monday by officials on the
operations of a government-run tsunami monitoring system of the
Pacific and the possibility of expanding its coverage.

Backed by some 90 aircraft, 18 ships and almost 13,000
military personnel, the United States is spearheading relief
operations in coordination with the United Nations.

The effort is one of the biggest U.S. forays into Asia since
the Vietnam War.