COLOMBO, Dec 30 (AFP) - Unprecedented foreign aid poured into Sri Lanka as its tsunami death toll was set to cross 29,000, but relief operations had effectively checked the spread of disease, the president said.
President Chandrika Kumaratunga said most of the 4,500 people still missing were likely to be declared dead "in the next few days" raising the death toll to over 29,000.
So far 24,743 people have been confirmed dead.
She also said there had been an spontaneous outpouring of help in the wake of Sunday's tragedy that caused a huge loss of life and destruction, but the loss of property was less than feared at first.
"We are in complete control over the situation," Kumaratunga told reporters after visiting the eastern region to supervise the distribution of relief supplies sent by the government as well as foreign well-wishers.
"There may be shortcomings, but all the displaced have been taken care of," she said, adding that nearly a million were driven out of their homes.
She said the damage to property could be less than a billion dollars.
"It is the smaller shacks that had been completely destroyed, but the bigger houses and hotels are still standing," she said. "What they need is repairs... The same with the railway tracks."
However, she said the tsunami had left a much bigger human disaster.
"There is a huge loss of life. Never in the history of our country have we suffered anything like this," she said. But the international and local supply of medicines had checked the spread of disease, she added.
She said she ordered the immediate construction of hundreds of toilets at some of the overcrowded centres where the homeless have been sheltered.
"I saw a girl about seven years old who had lost her entire family -- the father, the mother and all brothers and sisters," Kumaratunga said after visiting a relief camp. "I felt like bringing her with me."
She also said that there could be a possibility for rapprochement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) guerrillas who have been fighting a 30-year war for independence.
"The threat of war is remoter than on December 25 (the day before the tsunami) because the LTTE has suffered heavy casualties, if not anything else," Kumaratunga said.
For their part the LTTE also indicated a willingness to cooperate with the government in a relief effort that could help build confidence between the two sides who have maintained a tenuous truce since February 2002.
"We have already put on the table (a request) seeking the cooperation to take further humanitarian delivery ... suggesting that it can be viewed in an optimistic way," LTTE's political wing leader S.P. Thamilselvan told AFP in the rebel-held town of Kilinochi.
"If the intentions are translated into action, definitely there could be a positive step towards building confidence and (this) will definitely have positive impact on the peace process as a whole," Thamilselvan said.
The president said about 70 to 80 percent of foreign relief workers had been sent to rebel-held regions and more foreign assistance had been pledged.
US President George W. Bush offered help during a telephone conversation with Kumaratunga, her office said as Washington sent a 30-strong military team to assess relief needs in Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
The country's only international airport struggled to unload aircraft queuing up with supplies sent by scores of foreign governments and aid agencies.
Rumours of another tsunami sent coastal residents fleeing and state television repeated announcements calling for calm, quoting the meteorological department as saying there was no threat of a repeat strike.
The appeal followed reports that several people had been injured in a stampede in the coastal districts of Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Matara.
As the state machinery continued its relief effort, a convoy of five World Food Programme trucks headed to the rebel-controlled north-eastern regions of the country. A similar convoy left late Wednesday.
Relief committee spokesman Anthony Fernando said speedy burials of rotten corpses were continuing along the coast to help stem the threat of disease outbreaks. Police said more bodies were also being washed ashore.

12/30/2004 18:31 GMT - AFP