Government and aid agencies were moving food, water and medical aid yesterday to hundreds of thousands forced into temporary shelters by floods and landslides on Indonesia's Sumatra island.

Officials used helicopters to reach remote points in Aceh Province on the northern tip of the island, while military planes and dozens of lorries shuttled relief supplies to other areas.

Health authorities began treating well water to stem the outbreak of disease.

The confirmed death toll in Aceh and neighbouring North Sumatra province has remained around 100 in recent days, but figures for the displaced, many of whom lack basic necessities, have climbed to above 400,000.

"Displaced people in Aceh are at 365,335, while in North Sumatra (they are) at 44,189," said Laksmita Novira, a UN aid spokeswoman in Aceh.

More than 200 people were missing in Aceh alone, she said.

Medication and doctors had been sent to help the displaced, according to Rustam Pakaya, the health ministry's crisis centre chief. "So far there is no serious health problem," he said.

Lina Sofiani, a UNICEF officer in Jakarta, told Reuters: "Today, a child protection team from UNICEF's Banda Aceh base will go to east Aceh. Three diarrhoea cases were reported."

The government was sending additional food to flood-affected areas, polluted wells were being treated with chlorine, and temporary camps fogged with insecticide, the health ministry's Pakaya said.

The flooding came two years after a giant tsunami left about 170,000 dead or missing in Aceh, a remote but resource-rich province whose capital, Banda Aceh, is 1,700 kilometres northwest of Jakarta.

Aceh and North Sumatra produce palm oil, coffee and rubber, while Aceh has major offshore natural gas fields and related onshore facilities.

However, traders and officials say effects from the flooding have been minimal on output and processing of all those commodities except for rubber. Traders say washed out bridges and damaged roads have hampered delivery of raw materials to factories and pushed up rubber prices.

Authorities blame heavy rains and the effects of deforestation for the latest destruction. Lack of adequate forest cover leaves the ground less able to absorb excess water.

Flooding has also hit parts of peninsular Malaysia, across the Strait of Malacca from Sumatra.

Indonesia's president remains popular among voters and would win re-election if national polls were held today in the world's most populous Muslim nation, according to an opinion poll released yesterday.

Public satisfaction in the performance of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono rose from 56 per cent in 2005 to 67 per cent this year on a perception that the economy is improving, the survey by the Indonesian Survey Institute said.

"Yudhoyono will continue to dominate in 2007 unless a credible opposition emerges," the institute said in a media release to accompany the poll.

Yudhoyono, a US-educated military general, has won praise for overseeing a peace deal in once restive Aceh province, an improving economy and the arrest of scores of Islamic radicals blamed for a string of bombings.

The survey found that 48 per cent of the people would support Yudhoyono if an election was held today, with just 17 per cent supporting Megawati Sukarnoputri, a former president who still heads the country's largest opposition party.

The face-to-face opinion poll was conducted from December 18 to December 22 among 1,227 respondents from 33 provinces across the country, with a margin of error of 3 per cent.

Source: China Daily