The Indonesian government will build 500,000 houses to provide shelters for victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami in Aceh, a senior official has said. 

"The government is still assessing infrastructural losses in Aceh... But one thing is for sure that the government is focusing on the construction of houses for the Aceh people," State Minister for National Development Planning Sri Mulyani Indrawati was quoted Tuesday by Jakarta-based Kompas newspaper as saying.  

She said the program is estimated to cost some 3 trillion rupiah (333.3 million US dollars).

More than 600,000 Aceh residents have been made homeless by the tsunami, which claimed more than 110,000 lives in the province.

(Xinhua News Agency January 18, 2005)