There is no possibility of deferringthe upcoming South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit scheduled for Jan. 9-11, 2005, despite Sunday's earthquake that left a colossal loss of life and property in some member countries.

According to the private news agency United News of Bangladesh,the SAARC summit will be held on schedule, since Bangladeshi government has not received any request from any affected country like Sri Lanka or Maldives to defer the dates, said Foreign Secretary Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury on Monday.

Chowdhury further said preparations are in full swing to host the summit on schedule, adding high commissioners representing SAARC countries here have expressed their satisfaction over the preparations.

SAARC groups Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The Foreign secretary said the government has not taken any decision to declare holiday during Jan. 9-11 for a smooth holding of the summit.

The earthquake, with a magnitude of 8.7 according to the Chinese State Seismological Bureau, hit at 6:58 a.m. (0058 GMT) Sunday off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

The tsunamis swept across the Indian Ocean hours later without any warning. In some areas, walls of water up to 10 meters uprooted and swept away anything they met.

The powerful earthquake and deadly tsunamis it triggered struckSri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar,Bangladesh and other places, leaving over 22,000 people dead and millions affected across South and South East Asia.

In Sri Lanka, the death toll has already risen to 10,029, a military spokesman was quoted by local media as saying.

The death toll from tsunamis that ravaged India's southern and southeastern coastline and its islands rose to 6,800 Monday.

Maldives and Bangladesh also reported deaths of more than 30 people.