BANDA ACEH, Dec 31: The world pumped aid into south Asia's tsunami zone on Friday in a frantic race to save millions of survivors from dehydration and disease, and stop a terrifying death count climbing further.

Trucks laden with food, medicines and body bags rolled across Asia. Aircraft dropped supplies to cut-off villages as the $500 million relief operation, probably the biggest in history, swung into gear.

As relief efforts increased, bringing a glimmer of hope but facing huge obstacles, the toll rose too, five days after a quake below the Indian Ocean sent killer waves crashing ashore.

Some 124,000 lives were confirmed lost in an arc of suffering from Africa to Indonesia's Sumatra island, which alone accounted for two thirds of the dead - and where officials said another 20,000 bodies were likely to be found.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called it an unprecedented global catastrophe needing a fitting response, adding that it would be hard to reach and care for the 5 million homeless.

"Not only are we going to be stretched in terms of manpower and human resources, but we are also going to be stretched financially and technically," he said. Aid started to get through to stricken areas, but not always to the right people amid poor coordination and destruction.

Normally exuberant New Year celebrations were tempered out of respect for victims. Several cities cancelled parties, in Asia but also in Europe, several thousand of whose tourists were dead or missing. Giant transport planes from Australia and Singapore landed at Banda Aceh, and disgorged emergency supplies, but that was the easy part. -Reuters