Wednesday, December 29 2004 18:53 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Colombo: Sri Lanka battled to deliver relief to over a million survivors of the Tsunami disaster today (Dec 29, 2004), enlisting its military and public service and hundreds of foreign rescue workers for reinforcement.

As conflicting figures of the toll after Sunday's disaster being reported, Commissioner General of Essential Services Tilak Ranavirajah said the priority was to provide essential items to survivors being housed in makeshift camps.

"The priority is to get the supplies to the people in most need. We have the entire public service and the military on this job," Ranavirajah said.

The Disaster Management Unit (DMU) at the President's office said at least 17,800 people were killed when the waves smashed into the island's coastal belt, prompting President Chandrika Kumaratunga to issue an immediate appeal for international help. The military released slightly lower figure of 15,508 dead, including 61 of its own personnel.

Aid teams from India, Japan, China and France were already in the worst-hit areas along the Eastern and Southern coasts where mass burials of decomposing bodies were in progress while the homeless were being cared for.

Foreign doctors had set up field hospitals and were treating the wounded as local hospitals were trying to deal with piles of putrefying corpses.

Relief convoys organised by foreign aid agencies and the private sector fanned out from Colombo to affected regions, including the rebel-held North and East of the island.

Authorities said food, drinking water, clothes and medicines were urgently needed to be sent to the displaced sheltering in temples, churches and schools.