Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Relief agencies struggled to rush aid to more than 3 million people in Africa and Asia who lack food and medicine as the number of fatalities from the weekend's earthquake and tsunamis passed 80,000, with more than half the dead in Indonesia.

The death toll climbed as more corpses washed ashore and tallies came in from remote parts of the countries along the Indian Ocean hit by giant waves, triggered by a 9.0 magnitude quake off the coast of Indonesia on Dec. 26.

``There are so many dead bodies not yet properly cleared from places,'' Sri Lankan Red Cross organizer Tissa Abeywickrama said by telephone from Colombo, the country's capital. ``Cholera is a threat because of contamination of water.''

Thousands of people are missing across the region, and deaths from diseases such as dysentery and cholera may mount unless clean water, food and shelter are provided soon, relief officials said.

U.S. President George W. Bush said he spoke today with the leaders of India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia as American involvement expanded. The U.S. boosted its aid commitment to $35 million, set up a working group with India, Japan and Australia, and began to deploy naval vessels and helicopters to the area for support.

`Beyond Our Comprehension'

``I assured the leaders this is only the beginning of our help,'' Bush said at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. ``The past few days have brought loss and grief in the world that is beyond our comprehension.''

Jan Egeland, the United Nations' emergency-relief coordinator, told reporters in New York that the death toll was ``just over'' 80,000. Deaths in Indonesia reached 45,268, a health ministry spokesman said.

More than 20,000 Sri Lankans are estimated to have died, said Harim Peiris, a spokesman for President Chandrika Kumaratunga. The army said more than 1 million have lost their homes and tens of thousands are missing. About 15 percent of the island's stricken areas will be unreachable for at least two days because of washed- out roads and bridges, Abeywickrama said.

Sumatra's Dead

``Every fourth citizen may be dead in parts of Sumatra, where some communities have not been reached yet,'' Egeland said, referring to the Indonesian island near the quake's epicenter.

Egeland said ``thousands'' of UN international staff and local workers were now mobilized in Africa and Asia to begin assessing needs and delivering supplies. UN teams in Indonesia, Maldives and Sri Lanka have asked for a combined $130 million in immediate aid.

UN officials said dozens of airplanes are carrying food, medicine, water purification tablets and body bags to Indonesia, Thailand, India and other nations. Governments pledged at least $220 million in cash, and an equal amount in supplies, transport and military help, according to the UN. Japan promised $30 million, and Australia said it would give $27.7 million to the quake zone. Germany offered $27 million, and France pledged $20.4 million.

US Secretary-General Kofi Annan cut short a vacation to return to New York late today to oversee the world body's relief operations, spokesman Fred Eckhard said. He said Annan has been in touch with leaders of the nine nations most affected.

Companies Respond

Companies also offered support. Pfizer Inc. said in a statement it would give $10 million to relief groups and $25 million of its medications, including infection-fighting drugs. FedEx Corp. said it would haul about 100 tons of medical supplies for aid organizations to Sri Lanka and Indonesia. PepsiCo Inc. said it has allocated $1 million to relief work in the region.

Amazon.com Inc., the world's biggest Internet retailer, collected $2.5 million in about 24 hours after rearranging its home page yesterday to make a pitch for donations to the American Red Cross. The Red Cross has received total donations of $18 million so far, spokeswoman Kara Bunte said.

The U.S. division of CARE, an international charity, has raised $3.5 million since Dec. 27, spokeswoman Lurma Rackley said in an interview. AmeriCares has collected $1.5 million in mostly Internet donations since Dec. 26. The money is being used to transport medicine, according to the relief group.

U.S. Military Role

The U.S. military's 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, based in Okinawa, Japan, will set up a forward command post in U Tapao, Thailand, and the Pentagon plans to send the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, including accompanying ships with 12 helicopters, to a position off Sumatra, Marine Lieutenant General James Conway said at the State Department. Ships capable of producing drinking water are being dispatched, as are six C-130 cargo planes.

U.S. military disaster assessment teams were sent to Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, Conway said. The seven-ship Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group, based in Guam, was ordered to the Bay of Bengal for arrival by Jan. 7. It carries 25 helicopters.

The naval units will help with a disaster that is the worst since a cyclone in Bangladesh killed more than 130,000 people in 1991.

Perhaps hardest hit in Indonesia is Aceh province, which sits at the northern tip of Sumatra and was about 55 miles from the quake's epicenter. Aceh is Indonesia's westernmost province. The government has been fighting against separatists in the area since 1976.

Mud, Seawater

Towns along the Sumatran coast were covered with mud and seawater, with homes flattened or torn apart, an Associated Press reporter said after taking a military flight over the province. The only signs of life were a handful of villagers scavenging through debris on the beach, AP reported.

``The death tolls are higher in all the countries than we anticipated, but particularly in Indonesia,'' said Marc Grossman, the U.S. undersecretary of State for political affairs, who is coordinating the U.S. disaster response.

At least 6,974 people were killed in India, Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in New Delhi. An additional 4,000 are missing in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, V.P. Pasrija, a consultant at the National Disaster Management Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs, said in a telephone interview.

The Andaman and Nicobar islands are the closest part of the nation to the epicenter of the earthquake.

Town's Tragedy

Nagapattiam, a coastal fishing town in southeastern India, demonstrated the impact felt along the affected coastlines. Hundreds of people there may have died as they became trapped between the approaching tsunami and a lagoon that backs the town. No army or police had reached the area as of late today, and the only help came from volunteers driving from towns in Tamil Nadu, about six hours away.

Residents collecting debris in Nagapattiam to cremate bodies inadvertently started a raging fire among the thatch-roof houses.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the death toll might rise to 3,000 in his country. At least 64 people were killed in Malaysia, police said.

Laxanachantorn Laohaphan, Thailand's ambassador to the UN, appealed for forensic experts, body bags and refrigerated mortuaries to deal with the dead.

Somalis Missing

At least 114 people were killed on the East African coast in Somalia, about 4,350 miles from the quake's epicenter. ``Over 100 fishing boats are missing,'' United Nations aid official Rudolph Kazimiro said by telephone from Nairobi. ``Many people remain unaccounted for.''

More than 4,000 citizens of Sweden, South Korea, New Zealand and other countries are missing, mostly in Thailand and Sri Lanka. The death toll of overseas tourists may approach 1,000, according to offices of countries in the region.

The Christmas-New Year's holidays are traditionally the biggest tourist season in Thailand and Sri Lanka, where coral reefs, postcard scenery and low-cost food and accommodation draw thousands of visitors from Europe, Australia and elsewhere.

Walls of water as high as 10 meters (33 feet) crashed on beachfronts of resorts, destroyed everything in their paths.

In the Maldives, a group of more than 2,000 coral islands that straddles the equator south of India, 45 of 200 islands surveyed by the government are flooded, according to documents posted on the Web site of President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. A further 50 are either a third or half flooded. A total of 63 people died, and 72 are missing in the country, whose highest point is about 10 feet above sea level.

Rows of Bodies

Television reports showed mangled buses and cars, flattened buildings and crushed boats dotting much of the affected area. Rows of bodies shrouded in white or orange cloth were laid out for burial or cremation from Indonesia to Sri Lanka.

Health officials across the region are rushing to create mass graves or pyres to deal with the rising piles of bodies, saying they posed immediate health risks.

``Our greatest concern now if water-borne diseases such as diarrhea,'' Oliver Rosenbauer, a spokesman for the World Health Organization said in an interview from Geneva. He said water- purification tablets were on the way.

``So far there are no reports of outbreaks of disease, although it is still early and we won't see things such as malaria for a couple weeks,'' Rosenbauer said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Demian McLean in Washington at dmclean8@bloomberg.net. Greg Ahlstrand in Hong Kong at gahlstrand@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 29, 2004 17:11 EST