US Secretary of State Colin Powell voiced shock at the devastation of tsunami-hit Asia today, saying it was more horrible than the war he had witnessed in his decades as a soldier.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell enters a relief tent at a military airbase in tsunami-hit Banda Aceh, Indonesia today
"I have been in war and I have been through a number of hurricanes, tornados and other relief operations, but I have never seen anything like this," America's former top soldier said after flying down the ravaged northwest coast of Sumatra.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell
Mr Powell served two combat tours in Vietnam, where he was decorated for pulling troops to safety after his helicopter crashed and burned during a 35-year military career that ended with his service as the country's military chief.
"I cannot begin to imagine the horror that went through families and all of the people who heard this noise coming and then had their lives snuffed out by this wave," he said.
After his helicopter tour Powell (67) left for Indonesia's capital Jakarta where UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and other world leaders were arriving for a global relief summit tomorrow.
As the leaders gathered, people in Europe observed three minutes of silence to remember the more than 145,000 tsunami dead, who include several thousand tourists, many of them Europeans.
Annan is expected to announce a major UN tsunami appeal at the Jakarta conference, which will also discuss the possibility of an immediate freeze of debt payments by affected countries.
Germany dramatically raised its aid to countries hit by the disaster to €500 million, the largest donation by any country.
The area Powell visited, Aceh province, lost nearly 100,000 people, about two thirds of all those killed by the Indian Ocean tsunami 10 days ago triggered by a giant undersea quake just off its coast.
The World Health Organisation estimated more than half a million people were injured and in need of medical care in six nations.
Fears grew that diseases such as cholera and malaria would break out among the five million displaced.