Date:02/01/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/01/02/stories/2005010203911201.htm

International

U.S. focus on logistics

CRAWFORD (TEXAS), JAN. 1. Having pledged $350 million to help tsunami victims in South Asia, the Bush administration is focusing on the logistics of getting clean water, food and other supplies to people rebuilding their lives and burying the scores of thousands who died.

``The disaster around the Indian Ocean continues to grow both in size and scope,'' said the U.S. President, George W. Bush, on Friday in announcing that the U.S. would provide 10 times its earlier $35 million offering — an amount criticised as miserly for such a rich nation.

``On this first day of a new year, we join the world in feeling enormous sadness over a great human tragedy,'' Mr. Bush said on Saturday in his weekly radio address. ``The carnage is of a scale that defies comprehension.''

The dollar amount of the U.S. assistance could rise as the impact of the tragedy is realised, Mr. Bush said in a statement released at his Texas ranch where he and the First Lady Laura Bush are beginning the New Year.

— AP