Sweden held a memorial service for victims of Asia?s tsunami today, seeking to deal with what may be its worst loss of life for 200 years. The Nordic nation of nine million was one of the hardest-hit European countries in the December 26 disaster as the sunny beach resorts around the Indian Ocean have been a popular holiday destination for Swedes wanting to escape cold winters at home.

The royal family and leading politicians attended the ceremony in Stockholm?s city hall that followed a weekend of religious services and other gatherings to honour Sweden?s 52 dead and 637 missing. The ceremony coincides with the first day of school in the new year and the daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter said that, in one of Stockholm?s districts, Bromma, as many as five in 10 schools would have missing pupils. ?It is a frightful and painful duty I have telling schools ... and others how many and which students are missing,? city official Lennart Jonasson told the newspaper.

?What has happened is tremendously tragic.? Of Sweden?s missing, around 20 percent are under 20 years old, the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper said. Prime Minister Goran Persson?s government has been criticised in some quarters for what was seen as a slow initial response to help people caught up in the disaster.

Having been neutral in the two world wars, Sweden is unused to having to deal with major human tragedies. The sinking of the ferry Estonia in 1994 in which more than 800 people, 551 of them Swedes, were killed remains a scar on the nation?s psyche. Sweden suffered fresh tragedy at the weekend when gales swept across southern areas, killing at least seven people.

<B>Simon Johnson</B>