The emergency relief phase is almost over in Indonesia?s tsunami-ravaged Aceh province and foreign militaries should begin scaling down their presence, the government said yesterday.

But four weeks after waves destroyed communities around the Indian Ocean, killing as many as 225,000 people, aid workers said they were still struggling to reach some isolated areas, even as an incredible story of survival offered a glimmer of hope. In Aceh, which bore the full force of the waves triggered by a huge earthquake off its coast on Dec. 26, Indonesia?s chief social welfare minister, Alwi Shihab, said civilian relief workers would be of more use than foreign troops.

?I think that is only logical (that they scale down), not only the Americans but the Singaporeans as well. The Singaporeans are bringing in more engineers and civilians and withdrawing military,? he told reporters as he inspected preparations for a refugee relocation camp in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh.

The US military, along with others including Australia, has been providing the backbone of aid distribution operations on Aceh?s west coast using helicopters off two aircraft carriers. But the presence of foreign military personnel, particularly the Americans, has been a sensitive issue for authorities in the world?s most populous Muslim nation.

Indonesian forces have been battling separatist rebels for decades in the gas-rich province on the western side of the Strait of Malacca shipping lane. Before the disaster, Aceh had been closed to foreign aid workers and journalists.

<B>Lone survivor</B>

The United Nations has asked Indonesia not to attach a deadline to the presence of foreign troops after Vice President Jusuf Kalla said they should be gone in three months. While Indonesia has toned down talk of a deadline, it has made clear it wants foreign troops wind up their operations soon.

Seventeen out of 65 foreign civilian and military medical teams which poured into Aceh after the tsunami have already left, the government said yesterday.

?The emergency stage is almost behind us, so the military will no longer be as effective to give their contribution. Civilians are needed,? Shihab said. ?We are opening up isolated areas through ground transportation, so we don?t need more helicopters to fly.?

UN officials say the helicopters operated by US and other militaries remain key to reaching isolated pockets of people a month after the disaster, which killed some 166,000 Indonesians. Relief workers in Aceh said their work was far from over and they were preparing to take on more of the burden shouldered by foreign militaries. ?We are feeding close to 400,000 people now. But that does not equate with mission accomplished,? Patrick Webb, global chief of nutrition for the World Food Program (WFP), told Reuters.

He said the emergency phase of the operation could be defined in different ways. ?For us, the job is not done until we?ve reached everyone with a regular, adequate pipeline.? Shihab said the people of Aceh were beginning to cope. ?They are moving on. We have our religious clerics going around to comfort them, talk to them, and try to get them to cope with the new situation.?

In India?s Andaman and Nicobar islands, near the epicenter of the quake, a lone survivor was rescued from a remote island after surviving for four weeks on coconuts. The man, Michael Mangal, told rescuers the first giant wave sucked him out to sea before subsequent waves flung him back onto the tiny island of Pillow Panja where he discovered everyone else from his village was gone. It was one of the few pieces of good news on the devastated Indian Ocean coasts.

In Aceh, the WFP said it was positioning a floating warehouse off the worst-hit west coast. A 3,000 tonship with its own landing craft, loading facilities and enough supplies of rice, noodles and biscuits to feed survivors for a month was due to arrive today.

?It will make a significant difference to food distribution on the west coast. Obviously, we are at the stage where we have to make our own arrangements, with the anticipated departure of the assisting militaries,? WFP spokesman Gerald Bourke said.

Some refugees in Banda Aceh fear they are becoming dependent on aid and worry about when international efforts wind down. ?I don?t want to stay here forever, but I?m not sure how to get out,? said Yunus, a tailor who lost his shop and house, and is now living in a refugee camp.

<B>?Where can I go?? </B>

Amin, a civil servant from the ruined west coast city of Calang, said he was fearful. ?Where else can I go? Our relatives here have also lost their homes. They are also not sure what to do in the future,? said Amin, whose wife gave birth last week.

Volunteers and soldiers in Aceh still pull more than 1,000 bodies daily from the mud and destroyed buildings. The corpses are usually dumped in mass graves and the health ministry has ceased updating its public death toll.

With so many missing, conflicting figures put the toll of deaths in a dozen countries from Indonesia to Somalia at between 158,000 and 225,000. Governments and private groups around the world have pledged more than $7 billion in relief funds. On the weekend, top stars of rock, pop and classical music packed a Welsh stadium to raise money for tsunami victims at Britain?s biggest charity concert in 20 years. Performers included Eric Clapton and the band Manic Street Preachers.

<B>Dean Yates

Tomi Soetjipto</B>