Former US Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton arrived in Sri Lanka yesterday as part of a tour to tsunami affected countries.
The former presidents will tour the tsunami affected Matara district, 260 kilometres south of the capital where they are due to make two stopovers.
They will visit a debris-clearing project carried out by the USAID where cash-for-work and equipment is being provided to the people affected by the tsunami.
A top security alert is being maintained for the two former presidents. Presidential security guards have been in the areas where they hope to visit in advance and have been making security arrangements.
This is the first by both Bush and Clinton to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka lost an estimated 40,000 people in the tsunami when two thirds of the country's coastal belt was hit by the disaster.
The country has launched a major rehabilitation and reconstruction project. More than 150,000 people continue to live in welfare centres including tents put up by international agencies as their houses have been damaged.
The visit by Bush and Clinton is expected to further boost the government's efforts to obtain foreign assistance to rebuild houses and provide relief to the affected.
The visit comes ahead of a fresh phase of major rebuilding efforts initiated by the government due to take off on March 1.
Bush and Clinton was accompanied by 32 State Department and government officials said.
Meanwhile the flagship of the US Seventh Fleet, USS Blue Ridge, arrived in Colombo harbour in what is described as "a brief goodwill visit".
Earlier Clinton and Bush visited a mosque in Indonesia's devastated Aceh. Bush and Clinton flew to the north of Sumatra island, which bore the brunt of the disaster, from Thailand to meet more survivors of the tsunami.
