Unusually high tides again swamped parts of India?s tsunami-devastated Andaman islands overnight and Indonesia told aid workers it could not guarantee their safety in many parts of Aceh province.

In Paris, creditor nations were holding a meeting yesterday to finalise freezing repayments by some tsunami-affected countries, many of which are among the world?s poorest and have huge outstanding debts. Indonesia has asked that any relief given by the Paris Club should come without any conditions attached. Late on Tuesday night, sea-water flooded low-lying parts of Port Blair and other areas on the Andaman and Nicobar islands, which were directly in the path of last month?s tsunami triggered by a powerful earthquake off Indonesia?s coast.

People scurried to higher ground inland and many slept in the open after their homes were flooded, residents said. By morning, the waters were receding. ?I spent the night on my balcony watching the waters rise,? said M. N. Mahajan, a college principal who lives in a two-storey house by the main jetty in the city. ?It was horrible?. He said the sea swept past a barrier of sand bags and boulders he had built after the Dec. 26 tsunami which devastated the islands and other Indian Ocean coasts. The disaster ? the most widespread natural calamity in living memory ? killed at least 157,000 people, including 105,500 in Indonesia, 30,000 in Sri Lanka and 15,000 in India. Many of the more than 5,000 killed in Thailand were foreign tourists, a large number of them from Europe. People also died in Bangladesh, Myanmar, the Maldives and several East African nations.

In Indonesia, a long-running insurgency in Aceh province on the northern tip of Sumatra island was interfering with relief efforts. Authorities told aid workers helping tsunami victims not to venture beyond two large cities in Aceh because of possible attack by militants. Indonesia?s head of relief operations said agencies would need permission to work outside the provincial capital Banda Aceh and the ravaged west coast city of Meulaboh.

Asked if Aceh was unsafe for international aid workers, Budi Atmaji said: ?Yes, in some places.? Indonesian military chief General Endriartono Sutarto said he had tried to contact the GAM (Free Aceh Movement) rebels about a full ceasefire, ?but I got no response up to now?.

<B>Dan Eaton

Jeff Franks</B>