JAKARTA - There was confusion late Sunday within the Indonesian government over the death toll from the major earthquake on Java island, with two hotlines from the same ministry giving different figures.
Officials at one hotline run by the social affairs ministry revised down the death toll to 3,875, attributing the revision to a miscount by local authorities.
But another hotline run by the same ministry put the toll at 4,611, and those working there insisted their tally was correct.
"We're supposed to have the same figures because we're under one roof. We need to sort out the discrepancies," said Desi Desmawati, an official at the ministry's disaster relief center.
One ministry official named Kinta had put the death toll at 4,285 but later revised it down to 3,875, telling AFP that officials in Klaten district, one of the hardest-hit by Saturday's quake, had miscounted the number of dead there.
05/28/2006 13:05 GMT