Unusually high tides again swamped parts of India's tsunami-devastated Andaman Islands.

Late on Tuesday night, seawater 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 fled inland and many slept in the open after their homes were flooded, residents said. By morning, the waters were receding.

The tsunami killed at least 157,000 people along Indian Ocean coasts. Most of the relief work was still focused on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, the most affected area.

Militaries from more than half a dozen countries are taking part in the work, prompting the Indonesian government to issue a deadline for their stay yesterday."

"Foreign troops helping with aid relief efforts in Indonesia's Aceh Province should leave by the end of March," Indonesia's Vice President Jusuf Kalla said yesterday.

"Three months are enough. The sooner (they leave) the better," said Kalla. Those feelings are not necessarily widespread.

"The presence of foreign parties in Aceh is purely based on the spirit of solidarity. To save human lives," Aceh's only daily newspaper, Serambi Indonesia, said in an editorial.

Meanwhile, security concerns threatened to hamper efforts to deliver aid, although Indonesia's military chief on Tuesday offered the rebels a cease-fire, matching a unilateral one already declared by the insurgents.

At the same time, Chief Social Welfare Minister Alwi Shihab said yesterday the government wanted to improve the image of the country.

"The government is interested in creating a positive image. So this is a test case for the government," Shihab said.

Meanwhile, India, which had shunned foreign help for its tsunami victims, has now allowed UNICEF to help mount a campaign in Andaman and Nicobar Islands to prevent an outbreak of measles and blindness among children.

It is the first international aid agency allowed into the restricted islands closer to Myanmar and Indonesia than the Indian mainland and home to primitive tribes.

(China Daily January 13, 2005)