GENEVA - THE Red Cross said on Monday it will have built more than 55,000 houses for people hit by the devastating 2004 South Asian tsunami by the end of 2009, when most major construction work should wind down.

'Almost all major construction programmes are due to be completed by the end of 2009, when about 90 per cent of funding will have been spent,' said the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in a statement.

As of September this year, some 41,215 permanent houses have been built, while another 12,722 were under construction, it said.

Meanwhile, 279 of 383 planned hospitals and clinics are also completed, with work in progress on another 96.

Some 4.1 million people have received aid from the US$2.6 billion (S$3.84 billion) Red Cross programme.

Indonesia was the nation worst hit by the tsunami that struck on December 26, 2004, with some 168,000 lives claimed by the catastrophic walls of water that lashed Aceh province at the northern tip of Sumatra island. -- AFP