Vijay Nath, a WHO medical officer supervising the emergency response programme in Banda Aceh said he had a fairly good picture of the health situation in the provincial capital and there had been no confirmed cases of cholera.

"But on the west coast, we just don't know what is happening," he said.

With aid relief efforts in full swing in Banda Aceh, focus has now turned to the town of Meulaboh, 175 km (109 miles) to the southwest and just 150 km (93 miles) from the epicentre of the Dec. 26 quake. Officials estimate one third of the 120,000 people in the town were killed by the ensuing tsunami.

"The casualty rates in Meulaboh defy imagination," said Aitor Lacomba, Indonesian director of aid group International Rescue Committee. "Tens of thousands need immediate assistance there."

The International Red Cross said it would now focus on Meulaboh, making it an aid staging post. Japanese, Spanish and Singaporean medical teams are already operating out of the town.

"There is a strong smell of putrefaction and, whilst body retrieval has commenced, it can be assumed that there are still hundreds, possibly thousands of bodies remaining underneath the debris," said Red Cross engineer Sara Escudero.

Said Taufik, 40, who owned a furniture store in Meulaboh, lost nine family members including his wife, son and father.

"I'd never heard the word tsunami before but I was standing near the beach and I saw the water pull away about 10 metres (11 yards) and I just started running," he told Reuters.

A Singapore military medical unit has set up in Meulaboh and a surgical team established on Monday saw 150 patients in the first few hours, mainly with upper respiratory infections, unspecified infectious diseases, wounds and diarrhoea.

A US Marine amphibious group with three vessels and 10 heavy and medium-lift helicopters off the coast of Medan, 450 km southeast of Banda Aceh, plans to take supplies to Meulaboh.

"BLESS YOU MISTER"

In total, more than 94,000 people were killed by the tsunami in Aceh -- a province of about four million at the northern tip of the island of Sumatra -- making up two thirds of the total known toll from the Indian Ocean disaster of about 145,000.

The Indonesian Health Ministry said nearly 400,000 people were refugees in Aceh.

Parts of Banda Aceh city were deserted on Tuesday, especially the downtown area near the waterfront, where buildings were flattened by the quake and killer waves. Small fires smouldered in a desperate attempt to burn stacks of debris.

In front of a collapsed shopping mall where food and water were being distributed, at least 1,000 people queued for water from a private aid station set up by businessmen.

Volunteers handed out rice, marking people's fingers with ink that would wash off after a day to allow them to collect more.

"If you don't live in a refugee camp, you have to queue like this. It's very hard for us also out here," Ramzi, 27, told Reuters as he queued for water. He said he and 15 relatives were living in a house undamaged by the tsunami.

The main airport in Banda Aceh, a key hub for relief flights, was closed to fixed-wing aircraft for much of Tuesday after a cargo plane's landing gear collapsed in the early hours. The plane was finally dragged off the runway in late afternoon.

The World Food Programme said the plane had hit a buffalo.

While the vital runway was out of action, helicopters continued to fly in and out, but a Singaporean soldier said a backlog of aid-laden planes built up in Medan.

In Banda Aceh city earlier, an Australian military water purification station doled out large plastic bags of water.