April 04, 2007	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 15, 1428

HONIARA: Thousands of people in the western Solomon Islands slept on hilltops overnight fearing another deadly quake as aftershocks rocked the region, local officials said on Tuesday.

The government information service on Tuesday quoted a former Solomon Islands governor-general, Sir Moses Pitakaka, saying from the Western Province town of Gizo that thousands were homeless there after Monday's quake-spawned tsunami.

Pitakaka said thousands more were likely to have lost their homes in other affected areas in the west of the impoverished South Pacific country.

The Solomon Islands Red Cross estimated approximately 2,000 people, or 10 per cent of Gizo's population, were now homeless. Some 500 houses may have been damaged or destroyed.

Preliminary reports from other islands suggest similar or worse levels of damage, the government said in a statement.

Gizo, a popular diving centre, lies just 45 kilometres from the epicentre of a magnitude 8.0 earthquake on Monday which triggered the tsunami.—AFP