BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, (AFP) - A global push to reach survivors of Asia's tsunami faltered yesterday after a plane accident in Indonesia and heavy rain in Sri Lanka, with the United Nations warning the death toll from the disaster could rise by tens of thousands.

With the official toll already reaching to nearly 150,000, US Secretary of State Colin Powell got a first-hand look at tsunami damage and expressed confidence his country's relief efforts would boost its battered image in the Muslim world.

Powell, accompanied by President George W Bush's brother Jeb, toured relief operations on Thailand's resort island of Phuket and pledged US help in crafting a regional early warning system to head off future catastrophes.

He was on a three-nation tour to demonstrate the US commitment to the region after criticism that Washington was slow to respond to the tragedy.

After flying to Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation and the country hardest hit by the tsunami, Powell put the US pledge of 350 million dollars in aid and its massive military relief operation in political perspective.

"I think it does give to the Muslim world and the rest of the world an opportunity to see American generosity, American values in action," he told a joint news conference with Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda.

The invasion of Iraq last year chilled US relations with the Muslim world, but Powell insisted, "America is not an anti-Islam, anti-Muslim nation. America is a diverse society where we respect all religions."

His regional tour includes attendance at a crisis summit tomorrow in Jakarta.

Ahead of the meeting, the world's major industrialised countries and the Paris Club of creditor nations moved closer yesterday to freezing the debt of countries ravaged by the disaster.

Britain, with the backing of the United States and Italy, joined growing calls in Europe for at least a moratorium on the annual debt payments of many of the almost a dozen countries battered by raging waters.

Britain's finance minister, Gordon Brown, said London would propose to the Group of Eight nations, which it currently chairs, to suspend immediately about three billion dollars owed by the hardest-hit nations.

Creating a comfortable Living Space

Mission: HOPE

Jamaica Jazz and Blues a stimilus