"There has been surprisingly little change to reef flats, beaches and islands. There is also good news for the Maldivian fishing industry, with the tsunami causing little change in fishing conditions," Downer said in a statement.

Last December's tsunami hit 13 countries, seven in Asia, leaving more than 300,000 people dead or missing. The huge waves washed over many of the Maldives' 1,200 idyllic coral islands, killing 82 people and destroying many of its famed resorts.

Marine experts feared that the waves had crushed the Maldives' coral reefs and mangrove areas, which would have left the nation economically struggling for years as the reefs slowly recovered.

Australian scientist John Gunn, head of the Maldives Coral Reef Assessment team, said the Maldives' reefs had been spared because they were not hit by destructive waves like Indonesia and Thailand. He said the low-lying islands, some only a metre (3 ft) above sea level, virtually sank beneath the rising waters.

"Repeated comments from people in the Maldives was ... that there was no wave, they really felt like their islands were sinking," Gunn told reporters.

Australia's leading marine scientists joined Maldivian counterparts on a 17-day inspection of the reefs and islands. They studied 124 reef sites on seven atolls, covering about 170 km (108 miles) of reef, and gained additional information from 65 tourism dive sites.

"Surveys generally indicated that direct damage to reefs from the tsunami was minor," said the report. "Many survey sites had a light coating of sand. Small coral recruits are most vulnerable to smothering by sand and rubble and even a light coating of sand may make reef surfaces unsuitable for future settlement."

The scientists also inspected 19 inhabited and uninhabited islands and found that, despite significant damage to buildings, the tsunami had had little impact on reef flats, islands and beaches.

"Reef flats on the outside of atolls were minimally impacted. Beaches exposed to the tsunami experienced limited erosion."

The report looked at the Maldives fisheries and found that the tsunami also had had little impact on fish stocks and that many fishermen were once again earning a living from the sea.

Downer said he hoped the marine report would bolster tourism to the Maldives, where he said occupancy rates had dropped to 40 percent from a normal 100 percent for this time of year.