Sweden fears worst foreign death toll

Swedish authorities fear more than 1000 of their countrymen may have been killed in the Asian tsunami, the worst death toll for any foreign country.

Some 5000 foreign tourists, mostly Europeans, were still missing four days after the wall of water hit coasts and devastated beach resorts round the Indian Ocean. Germany said more than 1000 of its citizens were still missing.

As relatives combed Asian beaches in search of missing loved ones, and police tried to identify the dead, newspapers, politicians and people across Scandinavia fumed at what they said was the slow response of their Governments to the crisis.

Flags were to fly at half-mast in Sweden, Norway and Finland on January 1 while New Year's Eve events were being toned down.

"It is clear to everyone that the number of casualties will be in the hundreds. In the worst case the number could rise over 1000," Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson said. "Sweden is a small country and it is a huge number of dead."

Forty-four had been confirmed killed, up from six, he said.

A Swedish Foreign Ministry official said the first bodies might be brought back this weekend.

As Sweden lacked coffins, it would appeal to United Nations agencies for more.

Among foreign states, Sweden fears being hardest hit as its people have flocked for years to Thailand to escape long, cold winters. Officials have raised the figure of missing to 2500 from 1500.

Apart from local inhabitants killed in their thousands in Indonesia, India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and in smaller numbers in countries as far away as Africa, tourists from Australia, Canada, Japan, Singapore, South Africa and South Korea were also among the dead.

Nearly 700 Italians, 462 Norwegians, 419 Danes, 263 Finns, 200 Czechs and 294 Singaporean tourists are among those reported missing.

In Norway, where 21 nationals are confirmed dead, Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik said many of the 462 missing in the tsunami may be dead.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has said hundreds of his countrymen probably died.

A deputy foreign minister said on Thursday 33 Germans were confirmed dead and more than 1000 were missing.

Newspapers across Scandinavia fired off editorials accusing the region's leaders of being too slow to respond to the disaster and to send out help to their countrymen.

Swedish tabloids were the harshest.

"She went to the theatre," Aftonbladet said, referring to Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds. It said she did not go to her office for 30 hours.

Freivalds said she had been contactable on her mobile phone.

The Government has acknowledged it reacted slowly in the early stages, but said no one knew how big the disaster was.

Former Finnish Finance Minister Sauli Niinisto, who saved himself and his two sons in Thailand by clinging to a lamp-post for two hours, was critical of his Government for failing to hold an emergency meeting on the disaster.

"I was left with the feeling no one wanted us anywhere," he told a TV talk show after his ordeal in Khao Lak, the worst hit Thai beach, where he injured his leg saving a Swedish child.

Finnish tabloids painted their front covers black and showed photographs of the missing.

"Where are they?" they asked.

- REUTERS