"Challenges are huge. How do you distribute materials to the western part of Aceh? Roads (are) destroyed, harbours destroyed and the monsoon is coming," Kuntoro told a gathering of foreign journalists.

"If you go to Meulaboh then you'll have difficulty finding land. Basically Meulaboh is a peat soil land area. If you go to Calang you'll have a problem," he added, referring to two towns on Aceh's west coast that were hit hard by the tsunami.

On the morning of Dec. 26 a magnitude 9.15 earthquake, the strongest in four decades, unleashed the most devastating tsunami on record, leaving up to 232,000 people dead or missing in a dozen Indian Ocean nations, including nearly 170,000 in Aceh alone.

In Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, it also made half a million homeless along a stretch of once pristine coastline. Many survivors still live in squalid camps and are frustrated by the slow pace of reconstruction.

Kuntoro said his agency was sticking to a target to have 30,000 houses built by a variety of partners by the end of the year, with 80,000 to be erected next year. "That is more than the national capacity," Kuntoro said.

During the gathering, Kuntoro presented slides and statistics showing the latest progress in the reconstruction and rehabilitation process. The bulk of the approved projects have gone to the housing sector.

His agency aims to have moved all those living in tents and temporary barracks to permanent houses by 2007, Kuntoro added.

The disaster destroyed much basic infrastructure in tsunami-hit areas. Up to 120,000 houses were destroyed and hundreds of kilometres of roads were ruined.

Kuntoro added the government would not extend operating permits for those non-governmental organisations that had failed to contribute to reconstruction.

He did not give any names.

NGOs were slated to build 38,000 houses next year out of the total 80,000, he added.