Jan. 17 (Bloomberg) -- The World Food Program said it plans to set up a second relief base in Calang, a day after the Indonesian government raised its tsunami death toll to reflect 5,000 bodies discovered in the previously inaccessible region.

The second base will help the agency provide easier access to the 800,000 people in Indonesia who need food in the area devastated by the Dec. 26 tsunami. The United Nations agency has been running its aid operations from Meulaboh in Aceh province, the area most severely affected by the tsunami.

The agency yesterday completed distributing 30 tons of rice, noodles and high-energy biscuits in Calang, a town between the provincial capital Banda Aceh and Meulaboh, two of the hardest- hit cities in Asia, said Michael Huggins, a spokesman for the agency in Jakarta.

``Our idea is to build a hub in Calang,'' Huggins said in a telephone interview. ``We plan to use a two-pronged approach by breaking up the west coast into two. We need to step up aid.''

Indonesia's government said yesterday almost 115,000 people died, accounting for two-thirds of the more than 170,000 people in 12 countries who perished when giant waves were triggered by a magnitude 9 earthquake. Reconstruction in the devastated areas may cost 36 trillion rupiah ($4 billion), Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Aburizal Bakrie said today.

Immediate humanitarian relief work in Aceh province will take six to 12 months and reconstruction may take as long as five years, National Development Planning Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said today.

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The World Food Program plans to increase food distribution by 25 percent to 500,000 people in the next 10 days. It had given aid to 400,000 people as of yesterday.

Aceh, at the northern tip of Sumatra island, was closest to the epicenter of the temblor. The figure published yesterday by the Social Affairs Ministry includes the dead in Calang.

The agency, which had distributed 4,200 tons of food as of Jan. 15, also wants to use food aid as an incentive to get children into schools, Huggins said.

The rebel Free Aceh Movement has pledged not to harm aid workers in the province, the New York Times reported, citing Mucksalmina, a rebel.

The Free Aceh Movement has been fighting for independence for the province since 1976. Aceh, which has strategic importance as the gateway to the Strait of Malacca, is resource-rich with natural gas, oil and timber. The Strait of Malacca is one of the busiest sea lanes in the world with 40 percent of world trade passing through it.

To contact the reporter on this story: Arijit Ghosh in Jakarta at aghosh@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 17, 2005 04:26 EST