Jan. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Indonesia's Aceh province will receive aid overland from the capital, Jakarta, to ease the airborne relief operation for survivors of the Dec. 26 tsunami, the International Organization for Migration said.

A convoy started from the capital today ``in response to the enormous influx of humanitarian relief supplies and donations arriving in Jakarta that cannot be prioritized on the limited air capacity up to Aceh province,'' the group said in a statement in Jakarta.

Aceh was the closest area to the magnitude-9 earthquake that triggered the tsunami. About 113,000 people were killed in Indonesia, the government has said.

The airport in the capital, Banda Aceh, has one runway and handled just six flights daily before the disaster. It now handles 150 relief flights, British Broadcasting Corp. said. There have been two accidents in a week.

The military is considering opening its air force base in Sabang, on Weh Island, for relief flights, the Jakarta Post newspaper said. The base can support aircraft such as the C-130 Hercules, it said. Weh is off the northwest shore of Banda Aceh.

The World Food Program, or WFP, estimates more than 165,000 people were killed and more than 2 million were displaced by the tsunami in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Thailand, the worst hit of the countries in the Indian Ocean disaster.

More than 30,000 people died in Sri Lanka and 10,000 people were killed in India, the governments have said. Nine Maldives islands were rendered uninhabitable, Cable News Network said.

Cyclone

A cyclone in the Bay of Bengal may hit areas of Sri Lanka damaged by the tsunami in coming days, the country's Meteorological Office said. The cyclone is about 200 kilometers (124 miles) off the east coast, Ajith Weerawardene, a meteorological duty officer, said today in a telephone interview in the capital, Colombo.

The WFP has sent a 15-day food supply for 750,000 people in Sri Lanka and is preparing for a second dispatch, it said.

Indonesia today set up a Joint Disaster Management Center with the United Nations under the office of Vice-President Jusuf Kalla to coordinate international relief operations. Six UN staff members will help man the center, the UN said in an e-mailed statement.

Debt Repayments

Indonesia will seek a delay in debt repayments when the Paris Club, a group of 19 creditor nations, meets Jan. 12, Aburizal Bakrie, coordinating minister for economic affairs, said today in Jakarta. The U.K. government said last week it agreed with other nations in the group to a plan to halt $3 billion a year of debt payments by countries hit by the tsunami.

Aceh has received 2,268 metric tons of food, representing 29 percent of the food aid the UN has delivered since the tsunami, the World Food Program said yesterday in an e-mailed statement.

The WFP has set up a new humanitarian air hub at Subang Air Base in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital, which yesterday shipped food directly to Banda Aceh. Most of the food sent so far as been distributed through the port of Medan in North Sumatra province, it said.

Aceh has been in a civil war for three decades with the government trying to quell a separatist rebellion by the Free Aceh Movement. It remains isolated and the least accessible of the areas hit by the tsunami, with entire villages that haven't been reached.

Helicopter Crash

A U.S. Navy FH-60 Seahawk helicopter crashed at Banda Aceh airport at 7:20 a.m. Indonesian time today as it ``experienced a hard landing,'' said Major Rumi Nielson-Green, a spokeswoman for the combined support forces based in Bangkok.

It was carrying four aircrew, six U.S. navy personnel and supplies when the accident occurred. The four people injured were evacuated to the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier off the coast of Aceh for treatment, she said.

The Seahawk is the navy's workhorse in the relief operations, having flown 243 sorties since operations began on Dec. 26, she said.

Today, the relief operation plans to deliver 3,213 gallons of water, 12,000 pounds of food and 11,100 pounds of supplies such as rope, tents, and utilitarian items, Nielson-Green said.

Aftershocks

Survivors continue to be traumatized by aftershocks, aid workers said, with two temblors today. One was of magnitude-6.2 at 5:12 a.m. about 60 kilometers (37 miles) southwest of Banda Aceh, followed less than four hours later by a magnitude 5.1 quake near Simeulue, an island 290 kilometers south of Aceh, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site.

There have been more than 100 aftershocks in the area off the Sumatra coast and in the Indian Ocean near Nicobar and Andaman islands since Dec. 26.

Two weeks after the disaster, a survivor was fished out of the Indian Ocean, Agence France-Presse said. Ari Afrizal, 22, from Desa Kabung village in Aceh was adrift when found by an Omani cargo vessel, AFP said.

U.S. Marines arrived in Meulaboh in Aceh for the first time. It was the closest town to the epicenter and took the double hit from the quake and the tsunami.

To contact the reporter on this story: Claire Leow in Jakarta at cleow@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 10, 2005 05:55 EST