As final preparations were made for official commemoration ceremonies on Monday marking one year to the day since the disaster, mourners held mostly small, quiet prayer gatherings of their own on the anniversary's eve.

Western tourists who survived the tsunami were among those who returned to rebuilt resorts in Thailand to remember family and friends who did not. In India, children dressed in white marched down a street where thousands were washed away.

In Indonesia's worst-hit Aceh province, some survivors went to a mass grave where the unidentified bodies of almost 47,000 victims are buried -- many of them to mourn loved ones who simply vanished in the waves.

"After I come here I somehow feel satisfied," said Dasniati, who traveled 15 hours to lay petals on the grave at Lamboro, outside the devastated provincial capital of Banda Aceh.

She believes the body of her 10-year-old daughter, Yaul, was among the thousands dumped into pits at Lamboro in the days immediately after the Dec. 26 tragedy when officials were desperate to clear the streets of thousands of corpses.

Countries left reeling by the magnitude-9 earthquake that ripped apart the ocean floor off Indonesia's coast and the 10-meter-high (33-ft.-high) waves it sent crashing to shore, were preparing Monday to mark the anniversary with official ceremonies and a minute's silence.

Monuments were being erected, beaches scoured and security tightened -- making for a somber Christmas in some of the 12 tsunami-affected countries.

In a solemn private ceremony, Sigi Gsteu, of Feldkirch, Austria, wiped away tears as he remembered three close friends who died when the torrents flooded their Thai resort bungalow.

"When a person is missing and you don't have (a body), you cannot say goodbye," he said, placing two simple wooden plaques engraved with his friends' names beneath a lone pine tree where the resort once stood.

Overnight, at one Catholic midnight Mass in a hotel on Thailand's Patong beach, the priest urged attendees to "remember all those who lost their lives in the tsunami." Outside, revelers partied with bar staff dressed in Christmas hats in the beach's notorious nightclub district.

In India, more than 300 people attended an interfaith service of Hindu, Christian and Muslim prayers on Sunday before joining a march led by children dressed in white through Nagapattinam, where thousands were washed away.

"Our purpose is to express solidarity with the survivors and pledge ourselves to rebuild Nagapattinam," said S. P. Rajendran, secretary of the town's Chamber of Commerce and an organizer of the march.

In Sri Lanka, where the tsunami killed more than 31,000, Buddhist monks planned to chant and sing hymns in an all-night vigil Sunday to seek blessings for those who died and help them become reincarnated.

At least 216,000 people were killed or disappeared in the waves, according to an assessment by The Associated Press of government and credible relief agency figures for each country hit -- though the United Nations puts the number at least 223,000.

The true toll will probably never be known -- many bodies were lost at sea and in some cases the populations of places struck were not accurately recorded.

In the lead up to the anniversary, survivors and officials were taking stock of the relief operation and peace drives in Sri Lanka and Aceh, the two hardest hit places. Success has been mixed.

The tsunami generated one of the most generous outpourings of foreign aid ever known, with US$13.6 billion pledged -- the bulk of which has already been secured, according to the United Nations.

Rebuilding has started, but refugee camps remain full and frustration has grown that the pace of reconstruction is too slow. Aid agencies have urged patience, saying initial problems such as chaotic planning and lack of building materials are being overcome.

No such progress was made in Sri Lanka, where disputes over tsunami aid and an upsurge in violence have dashed hopes for an end to the longrunning conflict there. In the latest violence, unidentified gunmen shot and killed a pro-rebel legislator as he attended midnight Mass at a church in the country's east, the Defense Ministry said.

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