President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom said 75 people were killed while another 42 were confirmed missing in Sunday's devastating tidal waves that caused havoc in his nation of 1,192 coral islands.

"We were not in any way prepared to deal with this disaster," Gayoom told a special session of the national parliament. The toll could be higher as the authorities re-establish contact with far flung islands, he said.

"Maldives may be able to build a new life from scratch with financial assistance, but dealing with the widespread personal tragedy and despair would not be easy," he said.

The tragedy struck the atoll nation of 330,000 Sunni Muslims which is already facing the prospect of extinction from sea level rise caused by global warming. Gayoom had warned that a one-meter (three foot four inch) rise in sea levels could submerge his country.

When walls of water washed over the Maldives, the nation lost all the infrastructure on 13 of its 202 inhabited islands while another 29 of the country's 85 resort islands suffered similar damage.

Each island is a single resort hotel with the geographical formation allowing the country to keep foreigners and the local Sunni Muslim population separate except in the one square mile capital island Male.

Foreigners are not allowed to overnight on islands inhabited by Maldivians and special permission is required to visit them.

Gayoom, 67, who is Asia's longest serving president in power since 1978, has already declared an emergency and put off parliamentary elections that were due Friday.

Voting has been re-scheduled for January 22, but officials said even that could be put off again as the country struggled to rebuild itself amid initial estimates that the damage was in excess of 1.5 billion dollars.

Gayoom said 9,000 people had been evacuated from damaged islands while another 12,000 were made homeless across the archipelago.

"There are shortcomings in the relief operations," he admitted but urged all Maldivians to unite in the face of the worst disaster to hit the nation and said they were also getting international help.

Officials said a total of six foreigners, three Britons, two Sri Lankans and one Indian were among those confirmed killed.

The Maldives was getting a shipment of drinking water from Britain Thursday, officials said.

Scottish Water was sending thousands of bottles in an aircraft that was flying in to pick up stranded tourists.

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