The United States on Friday modified its number of tsunami victims, saying 17 American citizens have been confirmed dead in the South Asian and Southeast Asian tsunami disaster and 20 more Americans are presumed dead.

State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli made the announcement at a news briefing on Friday.

Ereli said there are some 2,100 Americans still unaccounted for in the disaster.

"As of today, we have received a total of 28,000 welfare and whereabouts inquiries. We have successfully resolved 25,900 of them. There remain about 2,100 inquired that we are working to resolve," he said.

The United States has been working with governments in the tsunami-hit region, nongovernmental organizations and people in the affected areas in a bid to track people down and verify their status.

Source: Xinhua