The aid effort is under way to help the survivors of the sea surges triggered by a massive earthquake in the Indian Ocean. BBC correspondents report from affected areas around the region and beyond.
Monday 3 January
Jon Sopel : Galle, southern Sri Lanka
: 1740 GMT
The head of UNICEF has been out visiting some of the worst areas, and she reckons that some 10,000 people, or a third of those who died, were children.
The tsunami has left around a million people homeless. Aid is beginning to reach the devastated areas, but only by helicopter.
Jill McGivering : Washington D.C.
: 1705 GMT
Millions of dollars have already been pledged by individuals and corporations in the US. But the appearance of George W. Bush with his father and Bill Clinton was an opportunity to use the two former charismatic US presidents to try and get much more money. And to make sure it's used efficiently.
Lyse Doucet : Tamil Nadu, India
: 1615 GMT
It's not just western governments helping in relief. In this region we've seen India giving aid to Sri Lanka and Indonesia. And I've seen volunteers from across India coming down here to help.
Coordination is absolutely critical. What we've seen in southern India were people giving piles of clothes, to try and help the aid effort. There were piles and piles of clothes by the roadside. Eventually they had to be moved away, with the government asking people to give money instead. People had enough clothes.
The outpouring of help from people has to be controlled in a disciplined way by a central authority.
Chris Hogg : Phuket, Thailand
: 1520 GMT
The Thai authorities are asking foreign volunteers who are involved with rescue efforts to register with them. But the Thai police are also controversially saying that foreign families and friends should stay away from the sites.
What they mean by that are the temples and mosques being used as temporary mortuaries. They are saying this because looking after the foreigners who come to look at the bodies is holding up identification efforts.
So whereas they recognise this is something that's very difficult for those relatives, they are appealing to them to either stay at home, or return home.
Frances Harrison : Kilinochchi, northern Sri Lanka
: 1445 GMT
I first went to Mullaitivu more than two years ago. It was to do a story about a fishing family displaced by the war for 14 years finally returning home.
Mr and Mrs Kumar and their five children were delighted to restart their lives, although all they had was a pitiful shack. I remember how happy the kids were as they'd never seen the sea before even though their father was a fisherman, and how they all rushed into the water.
These are the sort of faceless victims of this tsunami.
Real people who had hope the war might end and rushed back home. I wish I knew what happened to the Kumar family but it would be a miracle if they'd survived given they lived in a palm shack near the sea.
Huge cement structures are washed away - even the Victorian red letter box near the sea in Mullaitivu has been uprooted from its cement foundations. People in north eastern Sri Lanka have suffered so much in 20 years of civil conflict and now just when they were beginning to have hope, the water has taken it away.
Chris Hogg : Phuket, Thailand : 1340 GMT
The Thai authorities feel they've now got the situation under control. The country relies heavily on tourism, and they want to start repairing the damage done to their image abroad, as soon as possible. So the Thai Foreign Affairs Minister says the tourists should come back.
Rachel Harvey : Aceh, Indonesia : 1300 GMT
There still doesn't seem to be in any obvious, visible sense an organisation or a government in charge of this relief effort. In theory the Indonesian government is in charge. There are Indonesian military all over Banda Aceh now and across the province. They are helping to get the aid to where it is needed and removing dead bodies.
But there's no real sign of government officials taking control of this yet. They promised they would, they put a coordinating minister in charge of it. But we haven't seen much of him.
Lyse Doucet : Tamil Nadu, India : 1205 GMT
I'm watching a few women here who have bravely returned to the coastline, one of them with her child, to see if it's now safe.
Some people are afraid that the waters will come back, but they have to put their lives back together.
Frances Harrison : Kilinochchi, northern Sri Lanka : 0909 GMT
The emergency relief effort seems well organised in rebel territory, and the Tigers have involved government representatives at a local level in the distribution of aid, to ensure transparency.
The rebels quickly deployed their fighters to do relief work, and with the experience of managing man-made disasters during the 20-year civil war, they've coped well.
But there is resentment in rebel territory that people here have been left to cope on their own without significant central government support.
They're hoping the international community will ensure they get a fair share of the aid, essential for rebuilding people's livelihoods.
Gina Wilkinson : Galle, southern Sri Lanka : 0855 GMT
Speaking at a Red Cross relief centre in Galle, Louis Michel, European Union Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid, says quick action is needed to ensure the suffering of tsunami survivors is not compounded by financial ruin.
The commissioner says survivors here will need not only food, clean water and medicine, but also counselling for trauma and long-term assistance to revive the local economy.
Commissioner Michel says co-ordination of the relief effort in Sri Lanka has improved, but poor roads and a shortage of lorries is slowing the distribution of aid in some areas.
Daniel Lak : Nagapattinam, India : 0748 GMT
Much of the aid that is arriving here is from informal sources like businesses, community groups and individuals.
India has said it doesn't need international help with this operation, but the Indian arms of some international organisations are very much involved.
One problem plaguing the aid effort, say relief workers, has been the number of official visits by dignitaries and high government people. Each visit takes hundreds of police officers and workers to co-ordinate, people that might better be part of the direct relief effort.
Frances Harrison : Kilinochchi, northern Sri Lanka : 0705 GMT
SP Thamilshelvan, who is in effect the number two in the rebel Tamil Tiger hierarchy, said there had been absolutely no help from the Sri Lankan government to rebel areas in the first three days after the disaster struck.
Then, he said, a little bit of assistance did come from the central government, but he said the response so far did not indicate the Sri Lankan government was seriously interested in addressing the needs of Tamils.
He said Tamil people feared the government was just playing a game to attract international aid, but planned to cheat them once again.
Chris Hogg : Phuket, Thailand : 0424 GMT
The authorities say they will continue the search for bodies for at least five more days. Then, a decision will be made about whether or not to give up.
Ships from the Thai and the Japanese navies have begun a new search for bodies offshore. This follows a request from Swedish diplomats who believe several thousand of their citizens are still missing.
The owners of several smaller businesses have told me they don't know how they are going to afford to rebuild.
This is going to be a massive reconstruction effort and it is not yet clear who is going to pay for it.
Rachel Harvey : Banda Aceh, Indonesia : 0349 GMT
The massive relief operation that is so badly needed here is now beginning to take shape.
Forklift trucks have been brought into Banda Aceh's tiny airport so that cargo can be unloaded more quickly.
Meanwhile, in more remote areas, some survivors are now getting help, medical treatment, water and food.
But there are still places that haven't been reached yet. Foreign aid workers arriving here for the first time are clearly stunned by the extent of the devastation and the scale of the task which lies ahead.
Jonathan Charles : Port Blair, Andaman Islands: 0258 GMT
The Indian military authorities believe the threat of epidemic is real.
Survivors are now being inoculated against typhoid and cholera.
Most of them are living in appalling conditions, sheltering beneath coconut trees in makeshift camps.
At least 10,000 people on Car Nicobar alone are thought to be either dead or missing, but authorities say now isn't the time to talk about numbers because their main focus is the relief effort.
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