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The president nominated his two predecessors to head private fundraising after the Asian disaster, and they toured the devastated region together. The U.S. pledged hundreds of millions of dollars for relief and reconstruction.

In Jakarta, the head of the national reconstruction effort, Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, visited the U.S. Embassy to convey sympathy on behalf of the people of Aceh, the region worst hit by the tsunami.

In other messages of support, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said in a letter to Bush hoped the affected region would recover quickly, while Chinese President Hu Jintao expressed confidence that resilient Americans would be able to rebuild their homes and lives.

Barbs

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, an arch-critic of the U.S., offered to send a team of search and rescue workers, but also took the opportunity to knock Bush, calling him a "cowboy" and a "vacation president."

Venezuelan media doubted the U.S. would accept the offer of help, noting Caracas had refused to allow U.S. Marines to help rescue and reconstruction efforts after a flood disaster in Venezuela's Vargas state in 1999.

In Havana, Cuba's "National Assembly of the People's Power" held a minute's silence in memory of the victims of the hurricane -- but also issued a document emphasizing that those most affected by the tragedy were "African Americans, Latin workers and U.S. poor," the Prensa Latina news agency reported.

"Bush abandons hurricane victims," read a headline in the state-run Herald newspaper in Zimbabwe, another country whose policies frequently put it at odds with Washington.

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