Indonesia's tsunami death toll nears 100,000

Indonesia's death toll from the quake-tsunami disaster is 'approximately' 1,00,000, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said.

Indonesia's death toll from the quake-tsunami disaster is 'approximately' 1,00,000, Vice President Jusuf Kalla told an international donor's conference on Thursday.

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Indonesia's official death toll remains at 94,200, but thousands more remain missing along the coasts of Sumatra island, the region closest to the epicentre of the December 26 quake and the place that suffered the most death and destruction.

Kalla said up to 1 million people remain homeless on Sumatra and 1 million people have lost their livelihoods.

Opening the donor summit in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, described the calamity as "the most destructive natural disaster in living memory."

"Our response to this unprecedented catastrophe must be equally unprecedented," he said at the start of the meeting, which was attended by leaders from around the world.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the delegates the world must set up a tsunami-warning system to ensure such a tragedy is not repeated. Such a system is already in place in the Pacific Ocean, but not the Indian.