Speaking to KUNA at the end of the meetings, Al-Taweel said that the ministers taking part in the gatherings "underlined the importance of coordination among member states in order to remove any obstacle before the smooth transfer of goods and services across borders and physical barriers." He said that participants in the meeting discussed the bilateral relations between the GCC on the one hand and other regional and international economic blocs on the other. Participants also called for improving relations with other economic blocs.

Al-Taweel praised the efforts made by GCC members in streamlining their commercial and economic activities and recalled that GCC members were determined to achieve a GCC common market by 2007 and also to achieve unity of currency.

Turning to the other meeting of the Measurements Committee, Al-Taweel said that participants in that meeting discussed the latest developments regarding quality and measurement control.

Participants also agreed on streamlining GCC quality standards and called for matching world standards in product quality and quantity.

At the end of the 20th century, the United States ranked first internationally thanks to its dominance and strength at the economic, political, and cultural levels. However, things have soon altered, as the united Europe took the lead, thus building its own radiant, breathtaking entity.

China too has emerged at the international scene as a superpower followed by a steadily advancing India. By contrast, in the MENA - as some refer to our countries - the situation has relatively deteriorated, while the rapidly changing rules of the international game seem to confuse us. Even the hope of reshaping the region after the peace process has faded away due to constant conflicts, wars, and quest of the people for freedom and democracy.

All of a sudden, everything has changed mid-last year on. A once-falling dollar has regained its standing thanks to the US military and political pressures, while the Federal Reserve has kept on raising interest rates instead of reducing them. Many countries, instead of tempering down tensions, have also exerted pressures on China to force it to reconsider its currency's exchange rate. As for the alarming oil prices, instead of standing at $20-to-25 price range per barrel, they have doubled, thus hitting a $50 floor.

Early this year, the French have voted down the European Constitution. The German economy too has fallen into recession. Hence, Europe has seemed weak, tottering, and incapable of definitively settling any issue. The Chinese and the Indian balances of payments were also strained as a result of the mounting prices of oil, its derivatives, and the energy-intensive materials, like cement, iron, and other construction materials. The world has then focused on stabilizing prices - a trend that lasted for a long period of time. Meanwhile, the production costs have alarmingly soared at a pace even the enhanced productivity cannot keep up with. Hence, attention was directed to swift profits in the speculation in shares and real estates.

In short, the dollar is now on the rise, which enables the US economy to partly regain its international hegemony despite the successive upheavals that have shaken the Bush Junior administration. Hence, the "euro" has been falling against the dollar and the gold, thereby reflecting the anxiety gripping the European economy, even if a decline in the euro exchange rate may enhance to some extent the European exports. On the other hand, China and India still endeavor to flourish, each one alone.

Unfortunately, their growth may be stalled. For instance, the South East Asian countries (i.e. the ASEAN group) suffer at times from natural catastrophes, like tsunami, and at others from the outbreak of epidemics, like bird flu. However, they remain stable, even if they lose their international sparkle and their status as a promising economic bloc.

By contrast, the Arabs' position on the world economic map has not apparently changed. The Arab world is still at a standstill though it has outstripped the African countries, thus getting closer to the other groups ahead of it. Nonetheless, the chances of success are not the same in all the Arab countries.

For instance, the countries in North Africa show signs of economic progress, while the sustained growth has not been only limited to Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria, but has characterized countries, like Egypt, Libya, and even Mauritania. Therefore, the countries in North Africa including Egypt are increasingly emerging at the international scene.

As for the GCC countries, they are presented now, and as expected in the foreseeable future, with many opportunities to diversify their economies, buttress their international standing, develop their infrastructures, and join the world economy under suitable and plausible conditions. Had the Gulf countries averted some of the easily contained internal struggles, had they favored the mutual public interest to pride and showoff, they would have reaped more real long-term qualitative gains.

Furthermore, the condition of the Fertile Crescent countries is not the least satisfactory. Some states are even undergoing an ambiguous and complex transition period compelling them to take difficult decisions. Syria seems, for instance, trapped and is likely to remain embroiled in this critical situation, irrespective of its response, whether it bows to the international pressures or not. By contrast, the situation in Lebanon is expected to improve.

However, the question we all ask, though it cannot be easily answered, is the following: What will take place when the assassins of the late PM Rafik Hariri are tried? In Iraq, change has been awaited after the legislative elections. Nonetheless, Iraq's fate is still ambiguous, even as concerns its territorial unity and capacity to build its potentials. As for Palestine, and given the international circumstances, it has seen its dream of establishing a state vanish. Jordan, on the other hand, is still trying to preserve its stability despite the violent changes and disturbances at its borders and in the neighboring countries.

On the other hand, Sudan, like Yemen, has endeavored hard to initiate reconciliation and normalize its foreign relations. Yet, in Yemen, often do the domestic social and political conditions and arrangements pose many challenges. Besides, this country is sensitive to the dangerous developments in the Horn of Africa, especially between Eritrea and Ethiopia. In fact, the Arab world seemingly overlooks the countries of the Horn of Africa and the other states to the south of the Red Sea, like Somalia and Djibouti. Likewise, no one seems to care for the fate of the divided Comoros Islands.

If the current trends remain unreversed, the United States will certainly succeed, in the next five years, in re-dominating the world. The dollar will remain the main currency engine in the Arab countries, while the Europeans will try to find common grounds with the Arabs. Nonetheless, the Arab-European relations are bound to deteriorate at all levels in the light of the recent developments in France and the United Kingdom. Amid the prevailing European circumstances, the conservatives and the right-wing parties may even gain clout - a problem the United States has long overcome.

The next five years are expected to be the most complex for the Arab world at the political, economic, national, and regional levels. They may be even crucial in reshaping the Arab world, its map, and economic systems for many years to come.

The contention that this could unseat the dollar's dominance as the de facto currency for oil transactions may be overstated, but this has not stopped many commentators from linking America's current political disquiet with Iran to the proposed Iranian Oil Bourse (IOB).

The expected reduced call on crude for the refining of heating oil drove Nymex West Texas Intermediate for February delivery 48 cents lower to $57.72 a barrel in early electronic trade. While the International Petroleum Exchange in London remained closed on Tuesday, Brent crude was 54 cents lower in electronic trade at $56.15 a barrel.

The US National Weather Service said in a forecast that demand in the key north-east region was likely to be a quarter less than usual in the week to December 31, given the mild temperatures.

Meanwhile, recent supply tensions eased after Royal Dutch Shell said it had restored most of its production in Nigeria following an attack by gunmen on its Niger Delta pipeline, knocking out 180,000 barrel a day of production. By Monday Shell had all but 15,000 barrels per day back on line.

Walter Zimmerman, technical analyst at United Energy, said that low volumes this week were likely to mean that the market would continue to trade in the ranges seen for much of the past two months.

He said: When we look to the very narrow weekly range and the very low volume it seems more likely that more congestion is ahead.

Flooding is possible in the coastal regions of Northern California and southern Oregon as more heavy rain is expected to fall on already saturated ground and high water levels climb.

Potentially heavy snowfall amounts are also possible Tuesday morning in the Sierra Nevadas before precipitation turns to rain by the afternoon.

As this system pushes farther inland, potentially heavy snow and rain will fall in northern Nevada, Idaho, and into Montana and Wyoming by early Wednesday. Additional snowfall is expected through the Central Rockies.

A significant wind event is likely in eastern New Mexico and western Texas with west winds of 25 mph to 35 mph.

The warmest area of the country is expected to be Texas, with 70s and 80s. The Northern Rockies, Northern Plains, and northern New England will likely only rise into the 30s while the Ohio Valley will experience highs in the 40s and 50s.

Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Monday ranged from a low of minus 8 degrees at Gunnison, Colorado, to a high of 88 degrees at Laredo, Texas.

According to an article on Inter Press Service news agency, Philip Zelikow, who is now the executive director of the 9/11 investigation panel, said that one of the main reasons behind the 2003 US-led invasion was to protect Israeli interests in the region. Zelikow made his comments about "the unstated threat" during his tenure on a well-connected body known as the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB), which reports directly to the president. He served on the board between 2001 and 2003.

Zelikow's remarks contradict with the justifications provided by the Bush administration, which has never linked Iraq with Israel's security. Instead, President Bush has insisted that the war was to topple the Iraqi leader, liberate the Iraqis and destroy Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction (no such weapons were ever found in Iraq).

"Why would Iraq attack America or use nuclear weapons against us? I'll tell you what I think the real threat (is) and actually has been since 1990 - it's the threat against Israel," Zelikow told a crowd at the University of Virginia on September 10, 2002, speaking on behalf of a team of foreign policy experts evaluating the impact of 9/11 and the future of the US's war on terror.

"And this is the threat that dare not speak its name, because the Europeans don't care deeply about that threat, I will tell you frankly. And the American government doesn't want to lean too hard on it rhetorically, because it is not a popular sell," he added.

Even if Iraq really possessed weapons of mass destruction, Zelikow said, then the fear of them falling into the hands of the Palestinian resistance would have threatened Israel rather than the United States. "Play out those scenarios," he told his audience, "and I will tell you, people have thought about that, but they are just not talking very much about it."

Until now the possibility that Washington invaded Iraq to protect Israel has been rarely raised by some intellectuals and writers, with few public acknowledgements from sources close to the Bush administration. Zelikow's statements are the first to acknowledge that the war, which has so far claimed the lives of thousands of Iraqis, was launched by the US to eliminate a threat against Israel.

Political analysts who reviewed Zelikow's remarks said they are strong evidence of one factor in the rationale for going to war, which has been covered up. "Those of us speaking about it sort of routinely referred to the protection of Israel as a component," said Phyllis Bennis of the Washington-based Institute of Policy Studies. "But this is a very good piece of evidence of that."

Others blame the White House for not informing the public about its true motives for invading Iraq. "They (the administration) made a decision to invade Iraq, and then started to search for a policy to justify it. It was a decision in search of a policy and because of the odd way they went about it, people are trying to read something into it," said Nathan Brown, professor of political science at George Washington University and an expert on the Middle East.

The Bush administration, which is surrounded by pro-Israel, neo-conservative hawks, is now trying to defend itself against accusations that it derailed the "war on terror it launched after 9/11 by hitting Iraq, which didn't pose any direct threats to the Americans.

In fact, the war was pushed forcefully by the neo-conservatives in the Bush Administration. A number of senior figures from Bush administrations' neo-con wing wrote an advisory paper for the Netanyahu government in 1996 entitled "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm".

This paper listed ousting Saddam as an important Israeli strategic objective. It defies logic to believe that the same people, in their push toward Iraq war, didn't think about Israel's security. Writers involved in the "Clean Break" paper included Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, David and Meyrav Wurmser and James Colbert. All of them were supporters for the war.

Moreover, Israel's support for the invasion was never hidden. Both the Sharon government and a majority of the Israelis backed the war. A Guardian report on how the US intelligence community provided "evidence" to support the invasion described how Americans working outside the CIA worked with Israelis operating outside of the Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, to help produce that "evidence."

Reports before the war indicated that Israel was playing a key role in preparing for the invasion while others indicate that Israeli agents have been working among Iraqi Kurds.

A total of 12,990 mines were ordered to suspend operations for safety inspections, and 2,411 of them were told to shut permanently, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

China's coal mines are the world's deadliest, with more than 5,000 deaths reported every year in fires and other disasters despite repeated official promises to improve safety.

On Friday, safety officials said 96 officials were being prosecuted for negligence or corruption in six coal mine disasters that killed a total of 528 people over the past 13 months.

In the latest effort, Xinhua said that as of January 1, mines will be required to post a "safety bond" of up to $750,000 to pay compensation for deaths and other accident-related expenses.

The exact number of Muslims is difficult to establish however, as census figures are often questioned and many countries choose not to compile such information anyway.

UNITED KINGDOM

Total population: 58.8 million

Muslim population: 1.6 million (2.8%)

Background: The UK has a long history of contact with Muslims, with links forged from the Middle Ages onwards. In the 19th Century Yemeni men came to work on ships, forming one of the country's first Muslim communities. In the 1960s, significant numbers of Muslims arrived as people in the former colonies took up offers of work. Some of the first were East African Asians, while many came from south Asia.

Permanent communities formed and at least 50% of the current population was born in the UK. Significant communities with links to Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and the Balkans also exist. The 2001 Census showed one third of the Muslim population was under 16 - the highest proportion for any group.

It also highlighted high levels of unemployment, low levels of qualifications and low home ownership. The UK favours multiculturalism, an idea shared by other countries which, in general terms, accepts all cultures as having equal value and has influence over how government engages with minorities.

Professor Haim Lotan told reporters that Mr Sharon would undergo "a catheterism in the next two or three weeks." He said that a minor stroke which was suffered by the 77-year-old Mr Sharon on December 18 was caused "by a clotting of blood which came from the heart". The procedure would involve the insertion of a hollow flexible tube through a blood vessel into the heart.

During the course of the press conference, a team of four doctors released Mr Sharon's health records, a first for an Israeli prime minister. They reiterated that the stroke that he suffered eight days ago was "very minor". While Mr Sharon's powers of speech were affected for several hours, it had no impact "on his memory and other faculties". The doctors also emphasised that Mr Sharon was "in good health", his only problem being with his weight.

Since he was admitted to hospital, the Prime Minister's weight had fallen from 118 to around 115 kilograms, they added.

As far as Ulrich Maly, Nuremberg's innovative mayor, is concerned, there is no other choice - the city has to come clean. The World Cup stadium in which England play Trinidad and Tobago on June 15 is set in the middle of the huge complex where Hitler staged his torch-lit rallies. Fans will be walking down the 2km road, Grosse Strasse, where more than 100,000 Hitler Youth marched before shouting allegiance to their Fuhrer.

The granite street is so broad that US planes were able to land there after the war. And the England-Trinidad match will be held in a stadium that was used by stormtroopers for grenade-throwing competitions and other paramilitary games to prepare for war.

Dr Maly, 41, said: We really don't have an alternative. It's not that we are cultivating a Nazi image for ourselves. We already have one. While other German cities sweep their Third Reich history under the carpet, Nuremberg is rebranding itself as a place determined to face up to its past.

We took a long hard look at the things for which Nuremberg is famous and it boils down to the medieval architecture, the Christmas market, the painter Albrecht Durer and, well, the Nazis.

So the England supporters will be treated, as they wander across Hitler's parade ground, to a potted history of Julius Streicher, one of the leading ideologists of National Socialism and a native son of Nuremberg. They will read, too, of the Nuremberg laws that stripped Jews of their rights and paved the way for the Holocaust.

The irony is striking. The British Government wants to use the World Cup to revise hostile stereotypes of England fans and achieve a breakthrough in Anglo-German relations. About 100,000 English people are expected during the tournament, the biggest foreign contingent, and if they impress the Germans with their fairness and sobriety they will have accomplished more in a few weeks than the past decade of British public diplomacy.

But the Nurembergers, out of the best of motives, risk reinforcing the Germans-as-Nazis stereotype that both governments have been so anxious to discard. It does not take a big leap of imagination to see England fans mimicking the goose-step march or heading for the Zeppelin Tribune from where Hitler took the salute from the massed ranks of party faithful.

The potential for Anglo-German misunderstanding is even greater than usual. If you get nervous about this sort of thing you shouldn't be doing the job, says Peter Murrmann, who is in charge of preparing the city for the England fans. Every fan must know about Hitler before he enters the stadium.

The football stadium is probably the building least stained by the Nazis. It was built in 1928 before the Nazis came to power. Even so, Hitler appeared there several times.

The Nazis intended to replace it with the largest sports stadium in the world, capable of holding 400,000 people. Albert Speer drew up the plans, but it never passed the excavation stage. The complex housed an SS barracks, a prisoner-of-war camp and a Nazi Strength-through-Joy leisure area. Mainly, though, it is remembered for Leni Riefenstahl's film Triumph of the Will, as the place where Hitler communed with his fanatical followers. Today it is a scruffy parkland. The air of neglect is deliberate: Nuremberg never understood what to do with this tainted space.

By a strange twist, England may have helped to sort out the problem. City officials admit that they would never have collected the €500,000 euros (342,000 pounds) needed for the stands that will be placed in the complex had it not been for the impending arrival of thousands of England supporters.

Church officials say that as Italy's Muslim population touches the one million mark, some 20,000 mixed marriages took place this year alone. That is an increase of around 10% on last year. The Catholic Church's official position is to encourage dialogue between Rome and other religions, including Islam.

The late Pope John Paul II was the first pope in history to pray in a mosque, when he visited Damascus. His successor, Benedict XVI, has insisted that he is also keen to promote religious and cultural dialogue with the Islamic world.

But two documents published in Rome have called for extreme caution by Catholic women contemplating marriage to a Muslim.

Criticism: In one, issued by the Vatican last year, a Vatican cardinal, Stephen Hamao, wrote about what he called the "bitter experiences" that European women have had in marrying Muslims. The difficulties are compounded if the couple then goes to live in a Muslim country, the cardinal warned.

The tone was unusually strong in an age when interfaith dialogue seems the predominant buzz word. Then last month, Cardinal Ruini, the head of the Italian bishops, added his voice. In addition to the problems any couple faces setting up a family, he said, Catholics marrying Muslims have to reckon with extra difficulties arising from deep cultural differences.

Some Muslim scholars have expressed surprise at the Vatican documents and Italian liberal groups have also criticised them.

Last week, Romanian authorities announced four new cases of infected domestic birds from the village of Caraorman, in the Danube delta region. They said the village, which has no road access, would be quarantined and 2,000 birds would be slaughtered.

Romania was the first European country to detect the deadly strain of the disease in poultry last month. The tests on four hens were carried out by a British laboratory. "Regarding the samples in Caraorman, the laboratory in London confirmed it was the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus," Romania's agriculture ministry said on its website. Romanian Agriculture Minister Gheorghe Flutur told news channel Realitatea TV: "We are keeping things under control."

The H5N1 virus has killed more than 60 people in South East Asia since the latest outbreak began in 2003. Scientists believe it is only a matter of time before the virus changes and develops the ability to spread easily among humans.

The country's scientists have been working on the new vaccine for four years, according to state media. It costs a fifth of current treatments, and there are hopes it could also help provide the basis for human protection against the deadly H5N1 strain of flu. China is about halfway through the vaccination of its all domestic poultry - some 14 billion chickens and ducks.

Mass production of the new vaccine has been given the go-ahead, and a billion shots will be produced by the end of the month.

It unleashed a devastating tsunami that travelled thousands of kilometres across the Indian Ocean, taking the lives of more than 200,000 people in countries as far apart as Indonesia, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Somalia. A new BBC One programme, featuring the harrowing stories of survivors, gives a scientific account of the disaster.

THE EARTHQUAKE: Two hundred and forty kilometres (150 miles) off the coast of Sumatra, deep under the ocean floor, at the boundary between two of the world's tectonic plates, lies a 1,200km (745 miles) trench called the Andaman-Sumatran subduction zone.

At about the same speed as your fingernails grow, the lower plate, carrying India, is being forced or subducted beneath the upper plate, carrying most of South-East Asia, dragging it down, causing huge stresses to build up.

These stresses were released on 26 December. Shaking from this giant mega-thrust earthquake woke people from sleep as far away as Thailand and the Maldives.

Unlike the more frequent strike-slip earthquakes of Kobe or Los Angeles, which last for a matter of seconds, subduction zone quakes last for several minutes. The shaking during the Indonesian event went on for eight minutes.

Nobody knows how many died in the actual quake itself, but scientists have since visited the nearby island of Simueleu and found something astonishing. The whole island has been tilted by the force of the earthquake, causing coral, submerged beneath the ocean for thousands of years, to be thrust out of the water on the east side; bays in the west have been drained. "We were astonished to find ourselves walking through a pristine marine ecosystem, missing only its multitude of colours, its fish, and its water," said Professor Kerry Sieh, from the California Institute of Technology, US.

Yet, when the shaking from the earthquake subsided, no-one had any idea that the tremors had set in motion something far more deadly - a tsunami.

THE TSUNAMI: Deep under the Indian Ocean, at the epicentre of the quake, the 20m (65ft) upward thrust of the seafloor set in motion a series of geological events that were to devastate the lives of millions. Billions of tonnes of seawater, forced upward by the movement of the seabed now flowed away from the fault in a series of giant waves. The only people in the world to have any idea what had happened were thousands of kilometres away on the island of Hawaii.

But, relying on seismic data alone, the scientists at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center had no idea the earthquake had unleashed an ocean-wide tsunami. It was a full 50 minutes after they first picked up the tremors that they issued a warning of a possible local tsunami.

Thirty minutes after the shaking had subsided, the first wave, travelling eastwards, crashed into Sumatra.

On the shores directly facing the epicentre, the waves reached heights of 20 metres (65 feet), stripping vegetation from mountain sides 800 metres (0.5 mile) inland, capsizing freighters and throwing boats into the trees.

The city of Banda Aceh, just a few kilometres further round the coast was almost completely destroyed, killing tens of thousands of people in just 15 minutes.

WHAT THE ELEPHANTS KNEW: Leaving a devastated Sumatra behind, the series of waves continued across the Andaman Sea towards Thailand. A herd of elephants in the mountains seemed to know it was coming. They began behaving strangely, stamping the ground and tugging at their chains, eventually breaking away to run to the hills. Elephants have special bones in their feet that enable them to sense seismic vibrations long before we can. Animals taking to the hills was not the only sign that something was about to happen.

Due to the complex way in which the seafloor ruptured, some waves set off travelling with the crest first, others travelling trough first. The trough, reaching the shores of Thailand, caused the sea to disappear off the beaches. It is one of the classic warning signs of an approaching tsunami. Tragically, many tourists went down to the beach to look, some to rescue fish left flapping on the sand. A few minutes later, the first wave hit Thailand.

A thousand tonnes of water crashed down on each metre of beach. At Khao Lak, the wave reached 10 metres (30 feet) and caused billions of pounds of damage. The human cost was far greater - nearly 5,000 confirmed dead and 3,000 still missing.

At the same time, the westbound series of waves were heading for Sri Lanka. In the deeper waters of the Indian Ocean, barely noticeable at just a 30 cm (1 foot) above the surface, they were travelling at some 800km/h (500 miles per hour).

SRI LANKA: The first wave hit Sri Lanka with no recede and no warning. The waves, up to six of them, weighing over 100 billion tonnes, rushed inland like a giant tide. As they hit Sri Lanka's southern tip, they began to change direction, an effect called refraction. The part of a wave closest to the shore slowed down in the shallow water, leaving the outer part, travelling at faster speeds, to bend around the island. The southwest coast of Sri Lanka, the side that should have been safe, was suddenly in the waves' direct line. Cities such as Galle were destroyed; over 4,000 people died in this region alone.

The waves carried on further north to India, where they killed 10,000 people.

THE MALDIVES: Next in the waves' line, was one of the lowest lying countries on Earth - the Maldives. Miraculously, although 80 people died here, this country escaped relatively unscathed. It seems that due to their unique geography, being the tips of underwater volcanoes and without a continental shelf to push the wave height up, the tsunami just washed through. Coral reefs are also thought to have protected the country, acting like a giant underwater colander, stripping the waves of energy. As the waves left the Maldives, they passed through a narrow gap between the island chains, focusing their energy directly at Somalia, where 300 people lost their lives.

In Kenya, the waves, when they hit were small; their energy further removed by the land masses of the Seychelles and Diego Garcia. They had also seen the news reports and evacuated the beaches; only one person died. He was the last victim of a natural disaster that had claimed 300,000 with hundreds still unaccounted for.

More than 200,000 people were killed when an earthquake beneath the ocean sent giant waves crashing ashore. Places as far apart as Sri Lanka, Thailand and Somalia were affected by the disaster. Worst affected was the Indonesian province of Aceh, closest to the quake epicentre, where more than two-thirds of the deaths occurred.

A minute's silence was held in the provincial capital Banda Aceh to mark the exact moment the first waves came ashore, and a siren then sounded to inaugurate Indonesia's new tsunami warning system. A massive reconstruction effort is under way in Aceh, but it will take years to rebuild the shattered province.

Tens of thousands of survivors are still living in tents and it is estimated that at least 80,000 new houses need to be built.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono paid tribute to those who had tried to rebuild their lives over the past year. "You have reminded us that life is worth struggling for," he said.

The BBC's Rachel Harvey, in Banda Aceh, says that despite the dignitaries and flags of the formal ceremonies, the day is about the ordinary people of Aceh - the 130,000 people who died, the 37,000 still officially listed as missing and the survivors who were behind to grieve.

Train disaster: Sri Lanka has been paying tribute to more than 30,000 people who were killed on the island. Around the island, small private ceremonies were held to mark the moment the waves struck. The government held the official ceremony at Peraliya on the southern coast, where more than 1,000 people died when a train was swamped by the incoming water.

Temple bells signalled the beginning of a two-minute silence at a ceremony led by President Mahinda Rajapakse and attended by an array of local and international dignitaries. The BBC's Dumetha Luthra, in Peraliya, says the site of the train derailment has come to symbolise Sri Lanka's national devastation. But she adds that a year on, the line has been reconstructed, the train is once again running and that all along the coast, while still remembering the dead, people are continuing their lives.

Tourist toll: Thailand has been remembering more than 5000 people who lost their lives there in the tsunami, two-fifths of them foreign tourists. Worst hit was the stretch of coastline at Khao Lak in southern Thailand, where local Thais and the foreigners who were caught up in the disaster bowed their heads in silent contemplation before laying flowers in memory of those who died.

"I think you need to come back," Swedish survivor Pigge Werkelin, who lost his two young sons and his wife in the disaster, told Reuters news agency. "You need to go to the beach, you have to see children on the beach, you have to see everything... I must do it and then afterward I can put it behind me."

Aid model: Around 1.5 million people were left homeless in the region after the wall of water stripped away trees, houses and whole communities, and reconstruction could take between five years and a decade.

But just as the scale of the devastation was shocking, the BBC's Catherine Davis notes, so the international response was unprecedented.

The United Nations says it was the most generous and most immediately funded emergency relief effort.

About $12 billion is estimated to have been raised and the massive aid effort has also acted as a test case for how the international community responds to disasters.