Asia hurriedly burnt and buried its dead today, hoping to head off the threat of disease as international relief experts warned that the death toll from Sunday's tsunami disaster would end up passing the 100,000 mark.
Thousands more bloated bodies were discovered as rescue workers reached devastated areas of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India, the countries worst hit by the wall of water that spread out across the Indian Ocean after an earthquake off the coast of Sumatra.
The Thai Government said at least 43 Britons were confirmed dead there - well above the official toll of 26 from the Foreign Office - but even that figure looked conservative. Thai officials said more than 4,000 people, including many European tourists, were still unaccounted for.
Indonesia said that the death toll on Sumatra, which bore the brunt of the wave sent out by the earthquake, had risen to more than 45,000, including 3,400 bodies found this morning in the town of Meulaboh - where thousands of people are missing. A UN official in Aceh province said it could reach almost twice that by the time all bodies and missing people were counted.
That helped propel the overall death toll from the dozen or so affected countries to nearly 80,000.
There is also great concern for the inhabitants of India's remote Andaman and Nicobar island range, which sit just a few hundred miles north of the earthquake's epicentre. The quake was measured at 9.0 on the Richter scale, making it the most powerful anywhere in the world for 40 years.
Indian officials said 4,000 people were thought to have died on the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, but dozens of remote islands have not yet been visited, some only inhabited by primitive tribes which may well have been wiped out in the disaster.
The islands' police chief said today that most people had been surviving on coconuts alone since the tsunami and even they would start to run out soon.
The situation in the islands is of particular concern to aid agencies, who said it could push the overall death toll into six figures. "I would not be at all surprised if we are over 100,000 dead, particularly when we see what has happened in the Andaman and Nicobar islands," said Peter Rees, head of operations support at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
His colleague, Simon Missiri, added: "We're facing a disaster of unprecedented proportion in nature. We're talking about a staggering death toll."
There was also increasing concern for the people of Burma, where the official death toll is still under 100 and the military junta's only public response has been to send messages of condolence to neighbouring countries. Burma's sprawling coastline, where poor fishermen live in huts on bamboo stilts, was right in the path of the tsunami.
In Washington, President Bush made his first public statement on the disaster, after criticism that he had failed to respond personally to the apparent deaths of dozens of Americans. Mr Bush has instead spent much of his time biking and clearing brush from his ranch in Texas.
At a brief press conference, Mr Bush described the initial US grant of $35 million as "only the beginning of our help" and said the United States would take the lead in tackling the effects of the tsunami, along with a core group of Australia, Japan and India.
"These past few days have brought loss and grief to the world that is beyond our comprehension," he added.
The UK Government also appeared to have been stung into action, and words. Hilary Benn, the International Development Secretary, said Britain was to increase its contribution to the aid effort to £15 million - and more would be forthcoming.
Tony Blair, on holiday in Egypt, also made his first public comment on the disaster after three days, even though it appears to have claimed dozens of British lives.
In his New Year message, Mr Blair said: "Normally at this time, we look forward to the events, hopes and fears of the New Year here in Britain. At this moment, however, our thoughts are focused on what has just happened in Asia.
"This New Year the world is united in sorrow for those affected by one of the biggest natural disasters in our lifetime. Our prayers are with those who have died, those who have lost loved ones and friends and those whose lives have been destroyed by this terrible catastrophe in south east Asia. Many families in Britain have been affected and we must and will do all we can to help them.
"From the moment the disaster struck, we deployed emergency teams and key officials in the stricken area, and set up emergency assistance at home. We are constantly increasing our aid and support and are determined to ensure that everything we provide is directed to where it is needed and can best be used.
"The scale of this disaster is becoming more apparent each day and with it the need both for urgent and immediate relief for those affected, and the co-ordination of the international response to the long-term devastation this natural disaster will have caused."
Mr Blair's low-key reaction to the crisis is is marked contrast to that of other European leaders. Chancellor Schroeder of Germany interrupted his holidays to take personal control of the German crisis reaction team. And Scandinavian leaders have been preparing their nations for a period of national trauma after exceptional losses.
At least 2,000 Scandinavians, who had flocked to the beaches of southern Asian to escape the rigours of the Nordic winter, are among those missing, mostly in Thailand. Sweden alone has an estimated 1,500 tourists still missing.
In Thailand, some of those who remained behind after the tsunami, some in resorts which escaped the worst of the damage, started to get on with their holidays again. Andrew Drummond, a Times correspondent who toured Thai beaches around Patong on the island of Phuket this morning, said that the deckchairs and sun umbrellas were out again as Western tourists returned to the beaches after a quick clean-up.
"It's quite incongruous," he said. "There are still corpses on some beaches and holidaymakers on others. I saw several hundred people on Surin beach - it looked like any other day."
Indonesia and Sri Lanka, the two worst affected countries in the region, struggled to cope. Trucks and cargo planes ferried food, drinking water and medical supplies to centres sheltering some of the one million Sri Lankans left homeless by the tsunami, although some supplies were reportedly hijacked to prevent them being sent to areas under the control of Tamil rebels.
With the island nation's official death toll rising to nearly 22,000, bloated corpses were still being dragged out from rivers and lagoons and the debris of destroyed buildings.
"The biggest problem we are facing right now is the disposal of dead bodies and co-ordinating the relief efforts to reach the most affected areas," said Migel Bermeo, head of the United Nation's agencies in Colombo.
Reports of measles and diarrhoea were beginning to reach health authorities, causing concern for an epidemic. Relief officials said the lack of clean drinking water was the most pressing problem - especially if people were tempted to drink water contaminated by dead bodies.
For that reason bodies were being buried as quickly as possible in mass graves around the Sri Lankan coast, after being photographed and fingerprinted when possible.
Aid aircraft, including an airborne surgical hospital from Finland and a British plane with logistical support experts, started to arrive in Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital.
Mr Rees, the Red Cross operations chief, said both Colombo and Jakarta airports were already being clogged up by the arrival of unsolicited relief supplies and a lack of infrastructure on the ground to deliver them.
"This, in our experience, is one of the most complicated operations, it's our biggest ever deployment of assessment teams and emergency response units."
