COLOMBO, Dec 29 (AFP) - Sri Lanka Wednesday mobilised its entire public service and the military into an internationally-backed relief operation to stave off hunger and disease as the tsunami death toll neared 22,500.
The president's relief co-ordinating unit said at least 22,493 people were killed in the worst tragedy to hit a nation otherwise plagued by ethnic bloodshed that has killed 60,000 in three decades.
The government speeded up mass burials for rotting corpses left by a wall of water that killed at more than 80,000 people across Asia after it was touched off by an underwater earthquake Sunday near Indonesia.
Sri Lanka's chief relief co-ordinator, Tilak Ranavirajah, said systems were overloaded and admitted they were still trying to come to grips with the scale of the task ahead.
"We can't even think of guessing the size of the destruction," Ranavirajah told AFP. "The priority is to get the supplies to the people in most need. We have the entire public service and the military mobilised for the job."
For their part, the Tamil Tiger rebels too announced mobilising all their combat and civilian units for the gigantic task of caring for over a million people made destitute overnight.
Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran made no reference to a government offer to join a common relief drive, but said he shared the grief of the country's majority Sinhalese from whom he has been fighting to separate.
Government military and police officials said an operation on the scale of an "all-out war" has been mobilised to push relief and clear debris blocking 500-kilometers (312 miles) of coastal highways from the northeast to the southwest.
The military had early success when about 3,000 villagers believed to have perished in the tidal wave disaster were found alive Wednesday, an AFP correspondent visiting the eastern district of Ampara said.
However, in the south of the island, army soldiers stumbled on 300 corpses at a saltern which had been cut for three days following heavy flooding.
The Tourist Board said 100 foreign nationals were among the dead while another 60 were still reported missing.
Ranavirajah said there were conflicting reports on the death toll. A police body count placed the figure at about 9,000 while other estimates put the death toll at about 18,000, still below the 22,500 figure from the disaster co-ordinating unit.
"The police are going strictly by the body count," he said. "But, there are places where we have not cleared some of the houses flooded by the waves. The toll, therefore could go up, but we can't put a precise figure on it yet."
He said the government was focused on taking care of survivors while ensuring that there was no outbreak of disease. The authorities had fast-tracked the disposal of bodies that were rotting without refrigeration.
Trucks were just getting through to the southern coastal areas where many people have had nothing or very little to eat in the past three days as roads remained blocked.
The agricultural ministry said there was a severe shortage of essentials for people made homeless. The ministry appealed for candles, mosquito repellent, children's clothing, blankets, mats and plastic sheets.
Officials said they had difficulties in getting aid through to the remote areas. They decided to turn down public offers of cooked food because transportation and delivery had become a nightmare.
"We say 'No' to cooked food, but we welcome dry rations," Ranavirajah said.
Sri Lanka also asked Israel to stand down a medical team but to go ahead with sending urgent supplies to treat survivors.
"What we did was to tell them not to go ahead with plans to send 150 medical personnel," a foreign ministry spokesman said. "We have adequate medical and rescue personnel, but not enough accommodation."
The spokesman said that 10 Israeli medical personnel were already in the island helping in the relief effort along with teams from France, Russia, Spain, India, Turkey, Japan, UN agencies and the International Red Cross.
The Red Cross said it had already sent trucks with medicines and cooking utensils for the homeless.
The World Food Program said it sent the first stock of 168 tonnes of food to 12 districts in Sri Lanka to help survivors. Another convoy was travelling to the island's rebel-held north Thursday.
President Chandrika Kumaratunga declared Friday a day of mourning and in a televised address Tuesday night asked her ethnically-divided nation to unite.
She said local and foreign aid was pouring in and believed the nation of 19 million people had the capacity to overcome the disaster.
The Sri Lankan Cricket board, meanwhile, called off its tour to New Zealand and said the team would be back in Sri Lanka by Friday, while the government has asked people to cancel all New Year celebrations and carnivals.
Local officials along the coastal regions called for volunteers to remove decomposing bodies and carry out mass burials in shallow graves.
"Light vehicles can now move on the 160 kilometre (100 mile) stretch from Colombo to Matara," a local official in the southern town of Matara said by telephone.
He said relief was slowly getting through, but more needed to be done to help thousands who had lost their homes. "Most people still have only the clothes they were wearing three days ago," he said.

12/29/2004 16:46 GMT - AFP