Dec 26 - 0058 GMT: A quake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale hits the Indian Ocean, 250 kilometres (150 miles) northwest of Indonesia's island of Sumatra. It is the biggest tremor recorded anywhere in the world in four decades.

Thirty minutes later 10-meter (30-feet) high waves wipe dozens of villages off the map in Sumatra's troubled Aceh province, which has already devastated by decades of separatist conflict.

Tsunamis travel across the Indian Ocean, striking Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, notably the Andaman and Nicobar islands, Myanmar, Malaysia, the Maldives, Bangladesh, Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania.

DEC 28 - Mass burials are carried out throughout the affected region out of fear of the spread of disease.

The death toll rises to 55,000, rescue services struggle to get organised.

DEC 30 - Four days after the catastrophe, worldwide aid reaches 250 million euros (340 million dollars) and continues to mount.

The death toll reaches nearly 120,000 including at least 79,940 people in Indonesia, close to 25,000 in Sri Lanka, 11,330 in India and some 2,400 in Thailand.

The World Health Organisation says as many as five million have been made homeless.

JAN 4 - Britain unveils a proposal to partners in the Group of Eight most industrialised nations for an moratorium on debt repayments from Indian Ocean countries hit by the tsunami.

The World Health Organisation puts at 500,000 the number of people believed to have been injured and warns of a "health disaster" if access to drinking water is not resumed soon.

JAN 5 - The confirmed death toll passes 146,000, with thousands still missing.
Pledges of aid continue to arrive.

Australia announces a 764-million-dollar package to Indonesia on the eve of a major summit in Jakarta to discuss how nations can recover from the catastrophe.

Germany becomes the biggest European donor, raising its aid to 500 million euros.

JAN 6 - Attending the emergency Jakarta summit of leaders from 26 nations and international organisations, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan appeals for almost one billion dollars in cash to tackle the immediate aftermath of the disaster.

Asian leaders at the summit endorse a regional project to set up a tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean.

The EU unveils proposals for a further 450-million-euro package of relief while the Saudi-based Islamic Development Bank pledges 500 million dollars.

JAN 7 - Indonesia raises its death toll to just over 101,000, giving a total in the Indian Ocean region of around 153,000, although the UN warns tens of thousands more may be dead and unaccounted for.

In Sri Lanka, 30,615 are confirmed killed. The toll in India is 9,995 and in Thailand 5,291, half of them foreign holidaymakers.

JAN 8 - Thousands more tsunami deaths are recorded on the tip of Sumatra, bringing the death toll to just over 156,000.

Japan confirms it will deploy 1,000 military personnel in Indonesia for relief work, in the biggest Japanese military deployment abroad since World War II.

JAN 9 - Aid groups say some survivors in isolated areas may not have received help despite an unprecedented emergency operation.

France says the Paris Club of government lenders are in agreement on granting a moratorium on debt repayments to countries hit by the tsunami.

JAN 11 - UN emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland tells an international conference in Geneva that donor nations must speed up delivery of aid pledges for the relief effort.

The Indonesian military says restrictions on foreign aid workers in tsunami-hit Aceh are needed to curtail a growing threat from separatist rebels.

JAN 12 - The Paris Club of creditor nations offers an unconditional freeze on debt repayments for Indonesia, the Seychelles and Sri Lanka to help them recover.

Indonesia asserts its military control over tsunami-levelled Aceh province, requiring foreigners to register and seek official escorts to avoid what it says is a danger of rebel attacks.

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO, says a tsunami early warning system for the Indian Ocean is expected to be up and running by June 2006 and a global system to be in place a year later.

JAN 13 - Rebels in Aceh call for ceasefire talks to help the relief aid effort.

The Asian Development Bank says the tsunamis will likely throw nearly two million more people into poverty in Asia.

JAN 14 - Public and private aid pledged to the stricken countries tops 10.8 billion dollars.

The impact of the disaster on fishing and aquaculture in the Indian Ocean is worse and more complex than originally feared, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says.

The UN says 80 percent of Sri Lanka's fishing fleet was wiped out in the disaster but there is no evidence that fish stocks in the affected areas were contaminated.

JAN 19 - Indonesia's death toll passes 166,000, more than 50,000 higher than the previous tally, taking the total number of dead in the region over 219,000.

Floods block truck convoys from getting relief supplies into Banda Aceh.

India announces a further 600-million-dollar financial package for reconstruction of southern mainland areas.

JAN 20 - An international disaster conference in Kobe, Japan, agrees to put the United Nations in charge of building a tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean.

The UN says the system should be up and running in between 12 and 18 months.

The US military says it will start immediately handing over tsunami relief functions in Indonesia.

Indonesian troops say they have killed 120 separatist rebels in the past two weeks in Aceh, despite a pledge to cease fighting to focus on relief efforts.

JAN 21 - Yudhoyono leads tsunami survivors in prayer and mourning to mark sombre Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.

The UN head of tsunami coordination efforts, Margareta Wahlstrom, says most foreign troops operating in tsunami-devastated areas could be home in a month, as relief efforts move into a "second phase" of long-term projects to rebuild infrastructure and jobs instead of simply providing emergency aid.

JAN 22 - The Kobe conference pledges to build early warning systems and make disaster preparation a budget priority, with the United Nations vowing to halve the number of deaths due to natural disasters in a decade.

Activists at the conference warn that political constraints in Indonesia are discouraging international non-governmental groups from assisting victims.

Indonesia outlines measures aimed at proving that relief and reconstruction operations will not fall victim to widespread corruption.

Tamil Tiger rebels say they are putting on hold their struggle for greater autonomy for the Tamil minority in order to deal with the tsunami aftermath.

JAN 23 - The Indonesian death toll rises more than 7,000 to 173,981, taking the global toll to more than 227,000.

Sri Lankan government denies claims by Tamil Tiger rebels that it is using international aid to purchase arms.

Indonesian military says it has stopped launching attacks against separatist rebels in Aceh so that the government can pursue peace talks.

The UN warns that malnutrition is a growing problem among tsunami survivors in Indonesia, leaving many vulnerable to sickness.

JAN 24 - A strong earthquake shakes Indonesia's Sulawesi island, damaging dozens of shops and homes and prompting thousands to flee for fear of a repeat tsunami.

Japan's largest military deployment since World War II sails to Indonesia to help tsunami victims.

Southeast Asian tourism ministers say industry has lost billions of dollars since tsunamis but is expected to bounce back quickly.

JAN 25 - The number of people believed to have died in the tsunami jumps to more than 280,000, with Indonesian authorities announcing 228,429 people presumed dead.

Indonesia says it may shun an offer from the Paris Club of creditor nations of a debt freeze after it secured a 1.7-billion-dollar pledge from multilateral donors to rebuild tsunami-hit areas.

Red Cross officials warn the process of collecting all the dead may take another month, with thousands of corpses still being recovered in Indonesia' Aceh province.

A top World Health Organisation official says a major epidemic in affected areas is "very, very unlikely" thanks to aid efforts.

JAN 26 - On the one month anniversary of the disaster, Sri Lanka observes a minute's silence at the time tsunami struck its shores.

Oxfam warns the overwhelming scale of the global response to the tsunami has left inexperienced aid agencies working in the disaster zone without necessary skills and competence.