The United States is eager to end its military tsunami mission as soon as other nations are ready to take over, the US deputy secretary of defence, Mr Paul Wolfowitz said today.
" As soon as our military folks can pass these responsibilities on to other folks ... and make sure the job gets done, we will be happy," said Paul Wolfowitz, who was visiting Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
He also said he hoped the US military's role in the relief mission will be finished well before the end of March.
"I would hope that we would not be needed (in the region) as a military long before March," he said during the flight to Asia, according to a transcript of his remarks released at the Pentagon.
The US military has 24 Navy ships, one Coast Guard vessel and about 15,000 military personnel involved in the relief effort in southern Asia. Those include 2,000 Marines who are ferrying aid workers and transporting food to victims in Indonesia, the hardest-hit country, where more than 110,000 people died.
Hundreds of troops from Australia, Singapore, Germany and other nations are also helping the relief effort, along with UN agencies and scores of nongovernment aid groups.