Aid pledges for Asia's tsunami victims reached two billion dollars on a tide of New Year sympathy, but the United Nations warned it would take weeks for help to reach many survivors and that the death toll would likely rise to 150,000.
While the confirmed death toll from the disaster edged towards 126,000, relief work was stalled by flash floods that submerged at least 15 camps in Sri Lanka and a strong aftershock hit close to the epicentre of the December 26 quake which triggered the tsunamis.
As the scale of the damage became clearer, the World Health Organisation (WHO) acknowledged that the first signs of potentially deadly diseases had emerged in India and Sri Lanka, though there was no reason for alarm yet.
