"Four hundred million euros in private donations have been collected. I am happy that German people have shown themselves to be so generous, sensitive and willing to help," Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told a news conference of foreign journalists.

"This shows that Germany's international responsibility is not only being taken seriously by the politicians, but also by civil society," he added.

The record vaults Germany, with an additional government pledge of 500 million euros in aid, to the top of the global list of those responding to last month's catastrophic earthquake and floods.

One of the biggest individual contributions came from Michael Schumacher, motor racing's Formula One world champion, who donated 7.5 million euros.

The chancellor said the generosity was in part perhaps because the December 26 earthquake off Indonesia and the resulting tidal waves -- which have killed more than 168,000 people across 11 countries -- evoked memories among older Germans of the destruction and tens of thousands of civilian deaths during World War II.

In addition, he said the record was because Germans "empathized" with the Asians, the majority of them poor and many of them children, affected by the disaster.

The fact that so many Germans travel to southern Asia, particularly the worst-hit countries of Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand, likely also played a role encouraging Germans to dig deep.

The previous record stood at 350 million euros in the summer of 2002, when massive flooding hit large parts of eastern and southern Germany.

The Asian disaster has claimed at least 60 German lives, and left 678 officially missing.

Donors in other countries -- such as Sweden, Australia, the United States, Canada, France, Britain and Italy -- have also offered tens, sometimes more than a hundreds millions dollars in private donations.

Only in the richest nation, the United States did the public, along with top stars of Hollywood and the music industry help US private donations reach 350 million dollars.

The Australians have also been generous, contributing at least 118 million dollars through various events, including a telethon and an international cricket match.

The British public has given 190 million dollars so far and more money is likely to flow in, with British pop and rock stars to play a concert later this month in aid of victims.

In all, private donations from all the world's countries add up to close to 2.3 billion dollars, according to an AFP tally.

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