Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Indonesia's tsunami-ravaged Aceh province needs more volunteers and additional supplies of clean water and medicine as outbreaks of pneumonia, typhoid and diarrhea rise among survivors, relief workers said.

``We need a lot of clean water and equipment,'' said Jose Rizal, a doctor with the Jakarta-based Medical Emergency Rescue Committee, in a telephone interview. ``Right now we're seeing growing cases of upper respiratory infection, diarrhea, typhoid, skin diseases, pneumonia. We need a speedy distribution of medicine.''

Relief efforts after the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami that killed an estimated 170,000 people and left 5 million homeless in 12 countries have been hampered by lack of roads and communications in remote areas and by rebel separatist movements in two of the worst-struck regions of Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan toured devastated areas of Sri Lanka today by helicopter.

``Mr. Annan expressed his sorrow and he is looking to see how the UN can support the recovery and rehabilitation in Sri Lanka,'' said Sanaka Samarasinha, United Nations Press officer in Sri Lanka, who accompanied Annan. Yesterday Annan visited Aceh, which he described as ``utter destruction.''

UN Role

Asian, European and U.S. leaders agreed on Jan. 6 that the UN should coordinate the world's biggest peace time relief operation. Countries pledged aid of almost $5 billion, and Annan asked for almost $1 billion more in emergency funds to aid South Asian and East African nations hit by the tsunami.

The Group of Seven industrial nations agreed to allow tsunami-stricken countries to postpone payment on their debt, U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown said yesterday.

The British government, which this year chairs the G-7, said the group will quit collecting about $3 billion a year from countries including Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

International relief efforts have focused on Indonesia and Sri Lanka, the two worst-hit countries. About 113,000 people perished in Indonesia; Sri Lanka has reported more than 30,000 dead. The U.S. and Australia military are among those air-lifting aid to remote areas.

In Thailand, where the greatest number of overseas visitors died in the tsunami, the hunt for almost 3,500 people still missing has shifted from coastal resorts to the jungles that line the beaches, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said in his weekly radio address today.

Forensic Help

He also renewed a call for more international technological assistance to identify bodies after more than 5,300 people died in six southern provinces.

''The DNA testing will take some time because some samples were sent to overseas labs,'' Justice Minister Pongthep Thepkanjana told reporters today in Bangkok. ``We are also awaiting DNA and dental records from missing person's relatives abroad to match our file.''

India's official death toll edged over 10,000 today, with 5,624 people missing, most of them on the outlying Andaman and Nicobar islands. India's government has refused international aid, saying it has the resources to cope with the disaster.

``We expect the relief work to move into a second phase, which will involve making temporary shelters and the shipping of essential household commodities,'' S.K. Swami, director at National Disaster Management Division said in an interview.

Bureaucratic Snarls

In Indonesia, some aid workers complained that the government there is part of the problem slowing delivery of aid.

``We're still having some bureaucracy problems with the government,'' said Rizal Nurdin, head of the Indonesian Red Cross's task force in Aceh, in a telephone interview.

Nurdin said it's easier to reach survivors in remote parts of Aceh with the help of foreign troops and aid agencies than with their Indonesian counterparts.

In Indonesia and Sri Lanka, a long history of civil wars is making the task of providing those basic resources harder.

South Korea's intelligence service warned today that aid workers should take precautions. ``The Aceh region is where some militant Muslims have expressed animosity toward foreign aid workers,'' it said on its Web site. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said aid workers may be caught in fighting between government forces and rebels, the Weekend Australian reported.

Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels and the government have observed a cease-fire since February 2002. Peace negotiations are stalled over a Tamil Tiger demand that talks focus on allowing self-government for Tamils. The Tamil Tigers have been fighting for a separate homeland since 1983 in a conflict that has killed more than 60,000 people.

Lack of Trust

The Tamil Rehabilitation Organization, which is funded by Tamils living outside Sri Lanka, said lack of trust between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tiger rebels undermines cooperation in the delivery of food, water and other supplies.

``If both sides can put aside differences to work together in this tragedy, it would really help our relief efforts because government bureaucracy is delaying the delivery of food and medicine,'' said Naga Narendran, the head of the Disaster Management Team at for the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization, which is funded by Tamils living outside Sri Lanka. He spoke during an interview in the capital Colombo.

Indonesian Army Major General Sunarso told Kompas newspaper in Jakarta yesterday that the military is planning to send three battalions, or 800 men, from his command to Aceh.

The troops will be sent ``to help reconstruction and to anticipate attacks from the Free Aceh Movement,'' he said.

The ``tradition of hostilities'' could make it harder to provide aid to refugees in those countries, Rohan Gunaratna, head of terrorism research at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore, said in an interview today. ``It's possible the military may be suspicious of aid.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Grace Nirang in Jakarta gnirang@bloomberg.net, and Renee Lawrence in Colombo, Sri Lanka at rlawrence7@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 8, 2005 06:08 EST