French aid for victims of the Asian tsunamis rose to 41.3 million euros (US$56.17 million), French Foreign Ministry announced Thursday evening in a statement.
According to the statement, 21.3 million euros are emergency aid, which was distributed among Sri Lanka, Thailand, Maldives, Indonesia and India.
Another 20 euros announced by French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin on Thursday are to be allocated to prevent epidemic risks, said French Foreign Ministry.
UN emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland said on Monday that rich nations had been "stingy" in providing aid, representing 0.1 percent or 0.2 percent of their Gross national product (GNP), instead of 0.7 percent as they promised in 2000.
French President Jacques Chirac asked Thursday his government " to press for the principle of a debt moratorium within the Paris Club for the countries" and to double the emergency aid already mobilized to help to fight epidemic threatens.
An 8.9-magnitude underwater earthquake struck off the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Sunday morning. The quake and its aftershocks triggered tsunamis which hit India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and four other Asian countries. The overall death toll from the disasters has surpassed 125,000.