Remoteness and heavy damage of airstrips and roads by the Dec. 26 tsunami are hindering efforts to get food and other supplies out to survivors in Indonesia's Aceh and Sumatra, hardest hit by the disaster, a senior UN official said on Sunday.

Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland told reporters that relief supplies are now able to be moved to tsunami-stricken areas in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, but 90 percent of the problem remains in Indonesia, an archipelago state.

He estimated that there are more than 1.8 million people in tsunami-countries in need of food aid -- one million in Indonesia,another 700,000 in Sri Lanka and the remainder in the Maldives andSomalia. The figure could rise with new assessments to come in from the northeastern African nation of Somalia.

While food could reach the needy in Sri Lanka within three to four days, it would take "much longer" to get to survivors in Acehand Sumatra, he said.

"Ninety percent of our problems are in those areas because theyare more remote, because the damage was much bigger, because the roads are more damaged, because the air strips are fewer and they are more damaged," he said.

"Overall I am more optimistic today than I was yesterday and especially the day before yesterday that we, the global community,will be able to face up to this enormous challenge. The international system is working."

Egeland said world governments and international organizations have pledged more than 2 billion US dollars in aid for tsunami survivors and more aid are pouring in.

He said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who is originally due to visit Indonesia on Thursday, has decided to go there Monday night. After attending an international summit in Jakarta on Thursday, Annan would go to Aceh, Sri Lanka and other tsunami-hit areas to learn the needs of survivors.

Egeland said the United Nations has established logistics coordination centers in Rome, Jakarta and Aceh, and a separate command-and-control center has been set up in a Thai military base.

Among the countries providing military and civil defense assetsfor the relief efforts are the United States, Australia, Britain, Germany and Singapore.

Source: Xinhua