MALE: The Maldives wants to move thousands of residents from low-lying islands as part of a massive rebuilding effort after December's tsunamis and is banking on foreign aid to get the job done, said President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom in an interview.

The Indian Ocean archipelago of 1,192 tiny coral islands scattered some 850 kilometres at sea level across the equator is South Asia's most expensive tourist destination. It has already received 33 million dollars in tsunami aid, mostly from Japan, Gayoom said. But that is only 10 per cent of the estimated 304 million dollars needed, according to a preliminary report by the World Bank along with the Asian Development Bank and United Nations Development Programme.

"Of course we need more," Gayoom said. "More money has been committed but you know it will take time and we are not worried about that." The entire nation was submerged for 15 minutes following the December 26 tsunamis that killed 82 people and caused unprecedented destruction affecting one in three people.

"The United Nations' chief in South Asia has told me that out of the 65 million dollars that the Secretary General (Kofi Annan) had earmarked for Maldives about 42 million dollars have been sanctioned, which means we will get the money," the 67-year-old president said.

Last month, the UN had warned that most of the international donors were overlooking the plight of Maldives, where the tsunamis destroyed infrastructure built over 20 years and wiped out 62 per cent of its gross domestic product estimated at 600 million dollars.

The economy's mainstay tourism industry which earned 415 million dollars last year is estimated to lose about 100 million dollars in the current year, the report said.

Maldives, which has a population of 300,000, has drawn up plans to resettle inhabitants from low-lying islands to safer, bigger islands after the December 26 tsunamis displaced 15,000 villagers, Gayoom said.

Only 199 out of the 1,192 islands in the archipelago are inhabited, and 13 of them were made "uninhabitable" by the sea surge. Eighty-seven islands are tourist resorts.

Mohamed Shareef, deputy director of strategic communications at the president's office, said the tsunamis gave the nation an opportunity to push a plan for resettlement of villagers from low-lying regions.

Only four islands in Maldives have a population of more than 5,000 and another 119 have less than 1,000 people. "We have identified certain regions as a first batch of islands that will be considered and built as safe islands," President Gayoom said. "It will be relatively large and have ample opportunity to generate income."

"It will be both economically viable and environmentally sustainable," he said. Gayoom said the homes built under the 'Safe Islands Programme' will have "zones with land elevation," better communication facilities and be accessible by boat.

"We are moving people from small fragile islands to slightly relatively larger ones where they can lead a better life," he said. "Our policy is to convince people to move. This will be out of their own free will. No one will be forced to move. The programme will be over in the next five years."

Officials in Maldives said they could build better infrastructure such as schools and offer coastal protection on bigger islands rather than spreading their resources thin. -AFP