US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said on Saturday that US military forces, in the forefront of the Indian Ocean tsunami relief effort, would stay on to help rebuild shattered communities. Speaking to reporters after taking a helicopter tour of Indonesia's Aceh province, worst hit by the December 26 earthquake and tsunami it spawned, he said he was shocked at what he saw.
"I thought I was prepared for it, and I honestly wasn't - the enormous extent of it, the complete desolation," he said at the airport of Banda Aceh, the provincial capital.
"I suppose it's a sign of hope - you have to be impressed that the mosque and the churches are still standing," said Wolfowitz, who was ambassador to Indonesia in the late 1980s. "Maybe that's a good sign for the future."
He followed US Secretary of State Colin Powell and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in making an aerial tour of the damage brought by the strongest earthquake in 40 years and the 10-metre (30-foot) tsunami waves it produced.
Earlier he said one goal during his visit to Aceh was to assess what needs to be done in the reconstruction phase of the US military relief effort.
"We can't just leave and leave a big hole behind us. We have a chance to make this a success story. It's clear we have come here to help and not for any purpose of our own," he told reporters on the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier from where US aid helicopters begin their daily aid deliveries.
The Pentagon has deployed some 15,000 servicemen aboard a fleet of naval vessels carrying nearly 60 helicopters to deliver emergency aid to tsunami-ravaged countries around the Indian Ocean rim, mostly to Aceh.
Almost all of the 110,000 Indonesians killed in the calamity - two-thirds of the 162,000 fatalities in the whole region - were in Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra island.
APPLAUDS INDONESIAN DEADLINE: While Wolfowitz said the United States was committed to staying as long as needed to help with Aceh's reconstruction, it will pull its forces out of tsunami relief operations as soon as is feasible.
He said Washington has no problems with Indonesia setting a deadline for that.
Indonesia, by imposing an end-of-March goal for the withdrawal of foreign forces who rushed to help the survivors in Aceh, was setting a goal for its take-over of aid operations, Wolfowitz said.
He described the date as "more of a target than a deadline".
"We don't have a plan other than to (work) as quickly as we can to hand over responsibility to others, and especially to the Indonesian government."
Visiting the Lincoln aircraft carrier parked at the top of the nearby Malacca Straits, Wolfowitz thanked American helicopter pilots and others on board.
Earlier, visiting U-Tapao, a Thai military base, US Lieutenant-General Rob Blackman said US military help would be finished in both Sri Lanka and Thailand in the next two weeks. But he said it would take longer in Indonesia, where the challenges are greater.
Blackman said he was concerned about the aid reaching the right people and showed Wolfowitz a picture of young, healthy-looking men swarming an aid helicopter, clamouring for food and water.
"Widows could be at the end of the line," he said.
Xipe Brooks, 28, from Monterey in California, a helicopter pilot aboard the Lincoln, said the daily aid deliveries he has been making since January 1 are "by far the most rewarding thing I've ever done".
Wolfowitz was due to fly to Jakarta on Saturday night and is expected to discuss closer military ties with Indonesian officials at meetings on Monday.