WAKE OF THE TSUNAMI: The likely British death toll from the Indian Ocean disaster stands at 453, according to Prime Minister Tony Blair. He said 51 were confirmed dead and another 402 were likely to have perished in the Boxing Day tsunami tragedy.

Mr Blair told MPs that British Government aid for the stricken region had now been increased from £50m to £75m.

The Prime Minister also told MPs in the Commons that a memorial service would be held for victims later this year, to be attended by the Queen.

He promised arrangements for that service would be made after consultation with the relatives of those who died in the greatest single British loss of life since the Second World War.

The number of the dead and those most likely to have been lost was an increase of 10 from last week's figures, said the Prime Minister. They included 371 dead or missing in Thailand and 50 in Sri Lanka.

Mr Blair added that 871 Britons were still unaccounted for in the region, but were not thought highly likely to have been victims.

This figure was down from more than 2,000 last week.

The Prime Minister said the disaster unfolded when an earthquake moved about 4,000ft of the seabed. This in turn obliterated not just the area of coast at Aceh in Indonesia nearest to it but along 1,860 miles of Indian Ocean coast.

The tsunami had "quite simply washed the life out of" anything in its path.