A Thai village in the throes of rebirth

Former US Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush began a tour of Asia's tsunami killing fields yesterday in a devastated Thai fishing village which offered tears and hope.

"It's very moving," Bush said of a drawing of the giant wave hitting the village presented to the presidential pair by a young girl whose mother was among the estimated 1,500-2,000 people killed in Ban Namkhem. "I'll never forget this," he said.

Both were almost in tears when talking to reporters about the children who lost their parents in the December 26 disaster.

The girl, wearing a red cap and white blouse, drew in coloured pencil a picture of a woman floating, eyes closed, in the water.

But her village, which lost more than a third of its people to a tsunami that may have killed 300,000 people around the Indian Ocean, was also in the throes of rebirth.

Thai soldiers were busy building houses of concrete or brick as bulldozers removed the last ruins of a village the tsunami almost wiped off the map but now a hive of activity.

"President Bush and I have done what we could to raise money and give help for all the tsunami-affected and we hope to learn some more about what else we can do," Clinton said in a village where battered fishing boats sat among the buildings going up.

The former American leaders were appointed by 80-year-old Bush's son, President George W. Bush, to lead US fund-raising for survivors of the tsunami.

Once fierce political rivals, they said tsunami relief was above politics.

"You are almost in tears when you see this little girl here. It gets way beyond politics," said Bush.

Ban Namkhem was the first main stop on a lightning four-nation tour, including Indonesia's Aceh province, the worst hit area, to keep attention on the disaster and encourage Americans and US firms to keep giving.

Private donors worldwide have given billions so far in relief aid for the world's worst natural disaster in living memory. And Clinton said it was important to keep media attention focused on the tragedy.

He estimated about half of private US donations for tsunami relief had been channelled via the internet, which emerged during the crisis as a prodigious source of funds.

Clinton, who is making his most gruelling journey since undergoing quadruple-bypass heart surgery recently, said donor fatigue had yet to set in but urged the media to keep the spotlight on the need for money to rebuild communities.

"We don't want to let it go too far from the headlines so people won't forget about it until the whole job is done," he said.

To keep computer mice clicking, the trip aims to highlight how the millions have already been spent. In Ban Namkhem, Thai soldiers are erecting 600-700 concrete and steel houses and shipwrights are repairing fishing boats, all funded by aid.

But the region is also heavily reliant on tourism and as Clinton and Bush visited Ban Namkhem, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Sinhawatra was meeting industry officials on the nearby island of Phuket on how to rebuild areas that had been flattened.

The special focus was on Khao Lak, just south of Ban Namkhem, where the tsunami wrecked resorts and hotels packed with European tourists and killed hundreds of them.

But the tourist industry on Phuket hopes Bush and Clinton will also show people the place is back in business.

Bush and Clinton are also to visit Sri Lanka's battered southern coast and fly to the remote Maldives, a chain of idyllic coral islands hammered by the tsunami.