Sri Lanka increased its tsunami-related death toll by over 7,400 on Monday, pushing the overall toll for the disaster to more than 169,000.

"We are coming across dead bodies on a daily basis as we clear the rubble," Tilak Ranavirajah, a senior official with Sri Lanka's public security told a news conference.

The old toll was 30,920. The new count is 38,195 -- an increase of 7,475.

Ranavirajah said he expects the final toll to exceed 40,000.

On Sunday, Indonesia increased its toll by 5,000.

The additional deaths were reported from the village of Calang, on the northwestern coast of Sumatra. That island, one of the hardest-hit regions in Southeast Asia, has already listed more than 115,000 dead.

The Indonesian Social Affairs Minister said more than 12,000 were still missing from the Dec. 26 disaster, which happened when a massive undersea earthquake sent lethal tsunami waves crashing into 12 nations' shores around the Indian Ocean.

Meanwhile, foreign aid continued to pour in over the weekend.

The United Nations distributed 10,000 tents to Indonesia's Aceh province survivors as a temporary shelter solution. Each tent houses five people.

A Japanese medical team also arrived in Aceh on Sunday, the first of the military's largest overseas aid effort. Japan will be sending about 1,000 troops to Aceh in January for a three-month stay, said Col. Takeshi Moriichi, commander of the military's medical corps.

U.S. forces have about 2,000 Marines in the same region, ferrying aid workers and transporting food. The U.S. military has about 15,000 involved in the efforts in total.

But U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz said the military is eager to withdraw from the tsunami cleanup and hand over the baton to other foreign nations.

Indeed, several Indonesian officials, including the vice president have indicated their wish to see the large number of foreign troops out of the country by the end of March.

Part of their concern appeared to be related to security reasons as separatist rebels based in Aceh have been battling the government for years.

But after meeting with Wolfowitz, Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono said, "We would like to emphasize that March 26 is not a deadline for involvement of foreign military personnel in the relief effort."

Wolfowitz said Indonesian democracy might be advanced by military links with foreign nations.

"We need to think about how we can strengthen this newly elected democratic government ... to help build the kind of defense institution that will ensure in the future that the Indonesian military, like our military, is a loyal function of a democratic government," said Wolfowitz, who is also a former U.S. ambassador to Jakarta.

Meanwhile, bells tolled and flags flew at half mast as Australia and New Zealand held memorials and observed a minute of silence for victims.

"Three weeks ago, the world began to watch in horror as a catastrophe without precedent in recent times unfolded around the Indian Ocean," said New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark.

The aftermath of the "catastrophe has also seen human beings reach out to support each other on an unprecedented scale," she said.

"Across religions, faiths, and beliefs, across ethnicities and national boundaries, the common humanity of people has shone through at this time of great adversity for so many."

With files from Associated Press