Galveston County administrator Jim Yarbrough said he would resort to 'whatever means necessary' to remove some 200 to 300 people still hunkered down on Bolivar Peninsula, a strip of land all but swept clean by Ike's massive storm surge.

A top state health official meanwhile warned of 'a significant health risk right now' on neighbouring Galveston Island.

'With no running water, no electricity, no toilets flushing and very limited medical capacity on the island, there is a significant risk for infectious disease,' Mr David Lakey, Commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, told a press conference.

'This is not the time for individuals to return, and if they are still here they need to consider if they need to be, and go ahead and move off the island until the public health and medical infrastructure can be addressed,' Mr Lakey said.

Officials said up to 20,000 of the island's 58,000 residents were still there.

'Quite frankly, we are reaching a health crisis for those that are remaining on the island,' City Manager Steve LeBlanc earlier told National Public Radio.

Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said it would be weeks or months before utilities are fully restored.

'There's nothing to come here for right now. Please leave. I'm asking people to leave here,' Ms Thomas told a press conference in the city on Monday.

On Tuesday, however, Ms Thomas announced that residents who furnish photo IDs at highway checkpoints could return to check on their property during daylight hours under a 'look and leave' programme.

President George W. Bush toured Texas hurricane damage by air and attended an emergency operations briefing in Galveston Island, after urging Americans to donate to relief funds for victims of Hurricane Ike and other deadly storms.

Mr Bush singled out the American Red Cross as needing support and underlined: 'I hope the country does not have disaster fatigue.'

'People have been moved out of their homes. And I know a lot of people are anxious to get back in. I urge you to listen to state and local authorities before you come back,' Mr Bush said in Houston.

Millions of people were stranded without water and power because of Ike, which slammed into Texas on Saturday and left more than 17 dead across nine states.

60 Texans trapped in their homes by floodwaters were rescued on Monday, FEMA Administrator David Paulison told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Texas.

The rescues took place 'in a rural area', though Mr Paulison could not say exactly where.

'The rescue phase is winding down, except for going to those areas like that,' he said. 'And as we continue to go into some of the more rural areas we're going to find more people.'

FEMA is distributing meals, water, ice, blankets and tarps to hurricane victims, and setting up a task force to provide long-term housing for people whose homes have been destroyed, Mr Paulison said.

Paulison said 2.2 million people - 21 per cent of all Texans - still lack electrical power statewide.

An estimated 100,000 people on the Texas coast ignored evacuation orders and tried to ride out the tempest, despite warnings of 'certain death' from the national weather service.

Mr Simon Chabel of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) told AFP that as of late Sunday 2,100 people had been rescued throughout Texas, after Ike splintered houses, flooded roads and felled trees.

In rubble-strewn Houston, the fourth most populous US city, a week-long night curfew has been imposed because of flooding and the danger of downed power lines.

Mr Yarbrough said local authorities were rushing to prevent an outbreak of mosquitoes along the coast.

'The aerial spraying has begun and will continue,' Mr Yarbrough said. 'So we are going to try to keep the pests down, due to the fact that people have gone through enough misery already.' -- AFP