Prayers and silence mark anniversary

Banda Aceh, Indonesia: Mourners across the world gathered along ravaged Indian Ocean coastlines on Monday to remember more than 231,000 people who died in last year's tsunami.

A year on, a huge reconstruction operation has brought hope to hundreds of thousands living in temporary shelters, but the sorrow and pain from one of nature's most ferocious episodes remains strong - and fears that monster waves could come again.

"We think about the lost lives, lost property and lost jobs" said 19-year-old Kanagalingan Janenthra in Sri Lanka's eastern town of Batticaloa."We are in fear. Some of us think it might come again. The weather is the same as it was last year."

In a flattened coastal suburb of Banda Aceh, capital of Indonesia's Aceh province, Yudhoyono said: "In this wide open space ... under the blue sky, we stand together as God's children. It was under the same blue sky exactly a year ago that mother earth unleashed the most destructive power among us."

The tsunami left more than 231,000 dead or missing in 13 Indian Ocean countries - nearly three quarters of them in Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra.

The tsunami also made 1.8 million homeless.

While remembering the dead, Yudhoyono said it was also time to look toward the future.

"Today, tomorrow and the day after will not be about suffering because we are here also to honour those who survived ... they all want to rebuild their lives. You will see the tsunami survivors everywhere."

The tsunami generated one of the most generous outpourings of foreign aid ever known. Some $13.6 billion was pledged to relief and recovery efforts, the UN says, of which 75 per cent has already been secured.

A 9.15 magnitude undersea earthquake off Sumatra island, the strongest in four decades, triggered the tsunami, which smashed into shorelines as far away as East Africa.

The series of tsunami waves, up to 10 metres high, swept holidaymakers off beaches, smashed hotels and destroyed towns and villages in Aceh, Sri Lanka, India and southern Thailand.

In Sri Lanka's southern town of Peraliya, Hindu, Christian, Buddhist and Muslim priests chanted blessings at the site where 1,000 people died when their train was bowled over by the tsunami.

The Sri Lankan flag was lowered to half-mast as new President Mahinda Rajapakse oversaw two minutes' silence to mark the moment the tsunami hit.

Rajapakse placed a floral wreath at the foot of a cresting wave-shaped memorial as foreign ambassadors and dignitaries looked on.

In Phuket, Thailand, Australians tossed flowers into the sea and hugged each other to fight off tears as they gathered in this Thai resort to remember their loved ones killed in the tsunami a year ago.

"This was the hurdle, I think we're over it," said Ingrid Hastie of Perth, whose mother was one of hundreds of foreign tourists who died on Phuket island in the December 26 catastrophe.

"I'm really glad I came back," she said. "It was a wonderful service."