BERLIN, Jan 2 (AFP) - Sixty Germans are now confirmed killed in the Asian tsunami disaster in Sri Lanka and Thailand and many more than 1,000 are missing, the government said on Sunday.
Of the confirmed victims, 46 were in Thailand and 14 in Sri Lanka, said senior foreign ministry official Klaus Scharioth.
The previous overall death toll was 34.
A week after the waves crashed into the coast of countries on the Indian Ocean including Thailand and Sri Lanka where Germans were on holiday, Scharioth conceded that hopes were fading that any of the missing would be found alive.
"The probability that the missing will not return is growing with each day that passes," he said.
But a report in the daily Die Welt newspaper to be published Monday later put the number of missing German nationals much higher.
Citing sources close to the German security services, the report said 3,200 Germans were missing after last Sunday's tidal waves.
A foreign ministry spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.
At least 300 Germans were injured in the disaster while up to 7,000 have returned safely from the devastated areas.
Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer will visit some of the Indian Ocean nations affected next week, Scharioth announced.
"The main objective of the trip is reconstruction efforts," the official added.
01/02/2005 18:11 GMT - AFP