Four New Zealanders in southern Asia for whom the New Zealand government held grave concerns are now presumed dead, local daily The Dominion Post reported Wednesday.

The change in status from the Foreign Affairs Ministry brings the number of New Zealanders believed killed in the Boxing Day tsunamis to seven.

The presumed dead include a couple from Auckland, Belinda, 26, and Andrew Welch, 42, who were holidaying in a beachfront bungalowin Khao Lak, Thailand, when the tsunamis struck.

A memorial service for the couple will be held in Takapuna, Auckland, on Friday.

Another is former Christchurch man Stephen Bond, 46. Bond and his Thai wife, Janjira, lived in Bangkok but were holidaying near Khao Lak with their three children. The children survived.

Bond's sister, Michelle Bond, is in Thailand trying to find the couple's bodies. She believes that a photograph on a board showing unidentified victims is of him, and is visiting storage areas to find the body.

Those confirmed dead are former Kapiti woman Leone Cosens, 51, who had lived in Phuket for 12 years; Craig Patrick Baxter, 37, who had lived in Australia since he was a child and was holidayingon Phi Phi Island with his pregnant Thai wife, Miliwan, 28; and June Kander, 74, a New Zealand-born Canadian citizen, who was killed while visiting the Sri Lankan coastal town of Mirissa.

The identity of the seventh New Zealander presumed dead has not been revealed.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry is now concentrating its efforts on determining the whereabouts of a further eight New Zealanders thought to have been in affected areas.

Inquiries into the whereabouts of 3,822 people have been made since the tsunami struck, 3,320 have been confirmed alive and well,and a further 502 remain unaccounted for and may have been in affected areas.