Indonesia has asked that any relief given by the Paris Club should come without any conditions attached.

Late on Tuesday night, sea-water flooded low-lying parts of Port Blair and other areas on the Andaman and Nicobar islands, which were directly in the path of last month's tsunami triggered by a powerful earthquake off Indonesia's coast.

People scurried to higher ground inland and many slept in the open after their homes were flooded, residents said. By morning, the waters were receding.

"I spent the night on my balcony watching the waters rise," said M. N. Mahajan, a college principal who lives in a two-storey house by the main jetty in the city. "It was horrible".

He said the sea swept past a barrier of sand bags and boulders he had built after the Dec. 26 tsunami which devastated the islands and other Indian Ocean coasts.

The disaster -- the most widespread natural calamity in living memory -- killed at least 157,000 people, including 105,500 in Indonesia, 30,000 in Sri Lanka and 15,000 in India.

Many of the more than 5,000 killed in Thailand were foreign tourists, a large number of them from Europe. People also died in Bangladesh, Myanmar, the Maldives and several East African nations.

In Indonesia, a long-running insurgency in Aceh province on the northern tip of Sumatra island was interfering with relief efforts. Authorities told aid workers helping tsunami victims not to venture beyond two large cities in Aceh because of possible attack by militants.

Indonesia's head of relief operations said agencies would need permission to work outside the provincial capital Banda Aceh and the ravaged west coast city of Meulaboh.

Asked if Aceh was unsafe for international aid workers, Budi Atmaji said: "Yes, in some places."

Indonesian military chief General Endriartono Sutarto said he had tried to contact the GAM (Free Aceh Movement) rebels about a full ceasefire, "but I got no response up to now".

But the rebels said they would never attack aid workers -- who in turn said they were not overly worried.

"In no way has it impacted or diminished our goal to move about or to access populations," said senior UN relief official Kevin Kennedy.

DEBT RELIEF

Indonesia also said it hoped to take the lead role in providing aid to victims by the end of March, replacing foreign agencies.

"He (the president) expects the role of foreign aid (agencies) can be taken by us (the Indonesians). Meaning aid from domestic Indonesia to play the dominant role," Cabinet Secretary Sudi Silalahi quoted President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as saying.

Total international donations for disaster relief have been unprecedented, with governments, agencies and individuals promising over $7 billion.

A German brothel owner said she was so moved by the plight of the tsunami's survivors that she was donating part of her takings from clients.

"It's not every day you can make a charitable gesture by going to a brothel," said Mercedes Mueller, who is giving five euros ($6.60) of the 39-euro ($51) entrance charge clients pay.

In addition, creditor nations are working out the details of freezing debt repayments by some of the 13 tsunami-affected nations.

Indonesia's debt would generate more than $3 billion in principal repayments alone this year, about the same amount as Indonesia estimates it needs to recover from the crisis.