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.