A US military helicopter on a tsunami relief mission crashed into a rice paddy near Banda Aceh aiport in Indonesia, forcing a brief suspension of aid supplies to the province worst hit by the disaster.

All ten servicemen aboard the Seahawk helicopter survived the crash, which was blamed on mechanical failure, although six were said to be seriously hurt.

Aceh province, where more than 100,000 people lost their lives, was also hit by an aftershock measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale today and security concerns continue to challenge aid workers.

Millions of people are homeless and bodies are still being pulled from collapsed buildings from the tsunami, two weeks after it killed more than than 150,000 people across 11 countries. The Indonesian Government promised today to step up efforts to recover and bury the dead.

Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, assessed the damage in the Maldives, a low-lying string of coral atolls in the Indian Ocean that lost 82 people.

The United Nations is now co-ordinating humanitarian relief efforts in all the countries affected by the disaster and Mr Annan said it was taking that responsibility "very, very seriously".

The helicopter crash came amid heightened security concerns in several tsunami-hit areas with ethnic rebellion, particularly in Aceh, where rebels have waged a separatist war in the province for nearly three decades. United Nations staff in Aceh are on high alert and armed guards patrol their compounds amid fears of rebel attacks.

Endriartono Sutarto, the Indonesian military chief, told the Associated Press in an interview that he had heard reports of rebels stealing aid and even briefly kidnapping Indonesian aid workers.

Mr Sutarto said that the workers were rescued by Indonesian forces but gave no further details.

Indonesian authorities promised to speed up the grim task of recovering and burying the dead. Alwi Shihab, the Welfare Minister, said that 58,281 bodies had been buried in the shattered area on the northern tip of Sumatra island and some 50,000 more are "scattered" around the region.

Some corpses are still trapped in collapsed buildings and rotting under debris in canals and rivers. Their stench still hangs over some areas of the provincial capital.

In Sri Lanka, children returned to schools for the start of the new term - long before the many institutions damaged in the disaster can provide proper care and education.

Social workers hope the resumption of studies will help children overcome the trauma of the catastrophe, which tore apart families and destroyed homes and businesses.

But the US Defence Department's Joint Typhoon Warning Centre warned that a cyclone was moving towards Sri Lanka's southern coast and could disrupt relief work there. Residents in the area said the sky was grey, but no rain had fallen yet.

More top names in the pop world have signed up to play in a Live Aid-style concert to raise money for the victims of the Asian tsunami disaster. Organisers of the concert - to be held at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium on January 22 - revealed today that the Manic Street Preachers, Badly Drawn Boy, Snow Patrol and Embrace will be part of the line-up.

Stars already confirmed to play at the concert include Eric Clapton, Jools Holland, Lemar, Feeder, Kathryn Jenkins and Aled Jones.

By yesterday evening, 45,000 out of 65,000 tickets for the event had been snapped up. Tickets for the show are priced between £15 and £30 and organisers hope to raise £1 million if the stadium is filled. The ticket hotline number is 08705 582 582 and it is open 24 hours a day until the tickets sell out.

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