French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin announced Thursday that France was ready to send another aid of at least 20 million euros for epidemic prevention in the countries hit by tsunamis and said France's death toll in the disaster rose to 22.

"We fear that behind this first catastrophe there will be a second for the local populations, which are threatened by serious public health problems," said Raffarin after a ministers meeting at his office.

He said that France was ready to send 20 million more euros for emergency aid for this sake.

He also said that according to the latest statistics, 22 French died in the disaster, 244 were wounded, in addition to 560 "of whom we have no news".

French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier earlier in the day gave a death toll of 21 dead and 264 injured, mostly in Thailand, a popular tourist destination for Europeans.

Chirac said on Thursday that he had asked the French government to push for a Paris Club moratorium of debt for some of the devastated countries and double the French humanitarian aid to the stricken countries.

An 8.7-magnitude underwater earthquake struck off the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Sunday morning. The quake and its aftershocks triggered tsunamis which hit India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and four other Asian countries. The overall death toll from the disasters has surpassed 120,000.

(Xinhua News Agency December 31, 2004)