Thailand's Ministry of Labor has set up a 400 million-baht (10 million-US dollar) fund to compensate those affected by tsunami, the state-run Thai News Agency (TNA) reported on Monday.

A payment of 17,000 baht (425 US dollars) for funeral expenses will be given to relatives of the tsunami victim, who registered under the ministry's insurance scheme when they were alive, Labour Minister Uraiwan Thienthong was quoted TNA as saying.

Besides, the ministry will hand out an additional payment of 60 percent of victim's earnings to the relatives for a seven-year period.

However, Uraiwan said that the take-up rate to date had been slow, with only around 10 percent of the 12,000 workers registered in the six affected provinces coming forward with compensation claims.

He said the ministry had set aside a total of 400 million baht (10 million dollars) to help those affected by the tsunami, but so far payouts only totaled around 20 million baht (500,000 dollars).

The ministry has set up mobile working unit to travel around the affected areas to collect first-hand information of works' situation after the disaster.

The Thai government said the disaster's influence over the general economy was limited, though local tourism might suffer some loss in a certain period.

(Xinhua News Agency January 10, 2005)