Winding up a three-day tour of tsunami-hit nations, former US President Bill Clinton said in Hong Kong Tuesday that the rebuilding process of the tsunami-hit areas will take three to five years.

He made the remarks while making a stop over in Hong Kong for signing his best-sell memoir My Life Tuesday evening at a Hong Kong book shop.

Asked about his impression about his tour to the tsunami-hit countries, he said he was impressed by the speed of the recovery of the disaster-hit countries. However, he added, more efforts were required for the disaster-hit areas.

Clinton, arriving in Hong Kong Tuesday morning, signed hundreds of copies of his memoir in a bookstore of the Kelly & Walsh Ltd in the central part of Hong Kong Tuesday evening.

Clinton and former US President George Bush senior visited the disaster-hit areas in Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Maldives to assess the situation in those places.
 
(Xinhua News Agency February 23, 2005)