Clinton was on a lightning half-day visit to Aceh, where more than 165,000 people were killed or remain missing after last December's devastating tsunami, one day after he toured damaged areas in Sri Lanka.

"The assistance of the international community -- the United Nations, the Indonesian government, NGOs large and small -- will stay with you until Pak (Mr.) Kuntoro's job is done," the casually-dressed envoy said, referring to Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, the head of the agency in charge of rebuilding Aceh.

Clinton laid a wreath at a mass grave where tsunami victims were buried, 12 kilometres (seven miles) south of the provincial capital Banda Aceh, before visiting displaced people housed in temporary homes.

Its residents clustered around him, trying to shake his hand.

"Clinton, please give us money so we can build our house!" one called out to him in Acehnese.

In a statement issued by his office, Clinton said he wanted his visit to underscore the importance of sustained international support for Aceh.

"The challenges of the reconstruction will remain long after world attention has been worn out and friends of Aceh must pay the cost in providing critical assistance," he said.

Clinton later told reporters that reconstruction was moving forward "but the expectations of the people are very high so a lot of things need to be done in the next couple of years."

He said Mangkusubroto assured him people would be out of tents by next March and that his agency planned to have everyone in their permanent homes by

Nearly half a million people in Aceh lost their homes in the catastrophe, and rebuilding efforts have been criticised for taking too long.

More than 60,000 are still camped out in tents, and over 100,000 are in temporary living centres. The remainder left homeless have moved in with relatives or friends.

Mangkusubroto told Clinton that meaningful progress had been made.

"I can report that significant progress has been made and we are on track. But we still have a lot of work to do," the agency boss said.

"Every time you come to Aceh you can see significant progress has been made. Now 11,000 houses have been built and 15,000 others are being built."

Clinton told reporters that the economic outlook for Aceh was good. He said that he had met with US coffee giant Starbucks, as he promised to do during his second visit here, and persuaded them to buy Aceh's famed coffee.

"The potential of the economy here is very big... Starbucks (agreeing to source coffee here) is just an example," he said.

Clinton also praised the government and separatist rebels from the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) for signing a peace pact in August aimed at ending a three-decade bloody insurgency in the resource-rich province.

"The signs today are more than encouraging. Nothing could be more important if we are to truly build back better," he said in his statement.

The tsunami acted as a catalyst to get both sides to the negotiating table.

Clinton said he was inspired by the progress people were making towards rebuilding their lives after the "simply astounding" devastation that was wrought here.

On Tuesday, Clinton visited Sri Lanka, meeting with new Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse and travelling to the embattled northeastern port district of Trincomalee to meet with residents in tsunami-hit communities.

More than 31,000 people were killed and one million displaced by the giant waves in Sri Lanka.

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