Foreign forensic experts have joined the desperate race to identify Thailand's tsunami victims as the death toll and the number of missing mounts and as people give up hope of finding loved ones alive.
With much of Europe transfixed by a disaster which killed hundreds of its tourists escaping a dark, cold winter for the warmth of Thailand's shores, overseas forensic teams started their gruesome task.
There were signs of fractiousness with Thais wanting to bury bodies, decomposing fast in the tropical heat and piling up, and diplomats insisting no unidentified body be buried.
The diplomats won the argument, with the Thai Deputy Health Minister, Mr Suchai Charoenratanakul, saying no unidentified body would be buried.
Some governments, Sweden especially, are under pressure to find out just how many of their people were among the 6,130 Thailand said were still missing five days later. Fulmin- ating Swedish newspapers said as many as 4,000 Swedes could be missing as the official 1,500 figure seemed to be based only on charter tours, without backpackers or those on scheduled flights.
The Thai government said nearly 2,400 people were known to have died, 710 of them were foreigners. Experts fear some of the badly decomposed bodies may never be identified.
