More than 2,000 Scandinavians and 1,000 Germans were still unaccounted for on Wednesday, three days after their tropical paradise was devastated by Asia's tsunami.

Throughout Europe, the Indian Ocean disaster dominated the news. In Sweden, probably the worst affected European country, holidaymakers began arriving home, some still not knowing what had become of loved ones. Some 1,500 Swedes are still missing.

European leaders held out hope for signs of life, but simultaneously tried to prepare people for the worst.

Norway's foreign minister said the tsunami threatened to become one of the worst disasters for his nation in modern times.

The wall of water killed more than 77,000 people when it crashed onto south Asian shores on Sunday after a massive underwater earthquake.

"This will affect Swedish lives for a long time to come," Sweden's Prime Minister Goran Persson said, shortly after King Carl XVI Gustaf made a rare public broadcast to express his grief.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer urged people to give money to victims instead of buying New Year fireworks, and across Scandinavia there were signs people would do the same.

Sweden planned to fly flags at half mast on New Year's Day.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder canceled his holiday as the scale of the tragedy became clear.

He told citizens to expect that hundreds of missing compatriots had been killed, as did Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini, announcing that 600 Italians were missing.

"We have to prepare for the worst," he said.

Sweden, accused by local media of underestimating the problem, sent its foreign minister to Thailand, and Scandinavian airline SAS scrambled extra planes to bring holidaymakers home.

"The government made blunder after blunder, the people's verdict could be harsh," the Aftonbladet newspaper wrote.

Around 1,200 Swedish were expected back during the night. Some were still in shock, others were critical of the authorities.

"If someone handled things badly (in Sweden) he should take responsibility. The victims should have got at least some help. It is a disaster down there," returning holidaymaker Knut Larsson, 29, said.

"When the wave struck, I only had my underwear on, nothing else. I later managed to find other things scattered around," Tony Jagerholm, who was in Phuket, told Reuters Television.

Scandinavia's biggest recent disaster was in 1994, when 852 people died on the Baltic ferry Estonia, 551 of them Swedes.

Source: Agencies