By February 15, all US military personnel and equipment sent to Sri Lanka in the immediate aftermath of the December 26 tsunami will have left, said commander of the operation Brigadier General Frank Panter.

He said 900 troops remained in Sri Lanka after 700 left the island about 10 days ago on the landing craft USS Duluth, but another 200 would be leaving over the weekend and the rest in a phased withdrawal.

"Over the course of the next two weeks ... all of the US forces will be back in their home stations," Panter told a media conference.

While the military assistance propgramme was ending, civilian assistance, spearheaded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), would be stepped up in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, US embassy charge d'affaires James Entwistle said.

"The United States commitment to tsunami recovery is rock solid ... we're here for the long haul, we're not going anywhere," he said.

The US government had already provided relief assistance to the tune of 57.4 million dollars to Sri Lanka, most of it channelled through USAID.

This had been used for providing emergency relief supplies, shelter, water, sanitation, health, recovery of livelihoods, psycho-socio support and cleanup and rehabilitation activities benefiting 300,000 people, Entwistle said.

Some 6,000 people, mainly survivors of the tsunami, are engaged in cash-for-work programmes in which they sift through the tsunami debris to salvage materials which can be used in reconstruction.

On completion of the USAID programmes, being coordinated by its Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), about 1.5 million people affected by the tsunami will have benefited, Entwistle said.

According to General Panter, US military C-130 cargo planes and HH-60 helicopters had during their deployment in Sri Lanka conducted nearly 300 humanitarian flights, delivering more than 600,000 pounds (272,000 kilograms) of relief supplies.

US military medics had distributed medical supplies to hospitals throughout the island and provided care for more than 1,800 patients in northern Sri Lanka, he added.

US military engineers cleared unsafe debris from 17 schools, demolished 26 unsafe buildings, returned boats displaced by the tsunami to Galle harbour in the south and reinforced an existing sea wall.

They also distributed nearly 90,000 gallons (410,000 litres) of fresh water and decontaminated some 7,000 gallons of water from wells.

In the Maldives, some 100 US marines and sailors, backed by Maritime Prepositioning Force Ships MV Lummus and MV Bonnyman, cleared debris and produced, transported and distributed more than 120,000 gallons of fresh water to islands in Laamu atoll.

US deputy secretary of defence Paul Wolfowitz told reporters here last week that the troops would not stay any longer than necessary.

India and Pakistan have also scaled down their military relief work in Sri Lanka.

According to latest official estimates, 30,959 people were killed in Sri Lanka by the December 26 tsunamis while about half a million are still homeless.