BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — A militant Indonesian Islamic group warned foreign-aid agencies in the tsunami-devastated province of Aceh yesterday not to stray from their humanitarian mission.

Hundreds of volunteers from the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) are helping retrieve corpses from the debris of the killer tsunami that crashed ashore Dec. 26 after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, killing more than 105,000 people alone in Indonesia.

Indonesian authorities, meanwhile, warned aid workers yesterday that many parts of Aceh were not safe for foreigners, and the military claimed rebels were trying to rob aid convoys.

For nearly three decades, the Acehnese separatists have battled the central government in a war that has claimed thousands of lives.

In another tsunami-hit area with a history of separatist violence, Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who is from the Sinhalese majority, said she plans to adopt a minority Tamil child orphaned by last month's tsunami — a startling gesture that appeared to be aimed at helping mend a three-decade rift between the two warring communities.

Indonesian military chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto said yesterday that separatists were trying to hijack relief supplies. He called on them to agree to a cease-fire and "work together" to help rebuild.

Asked if some places were unsafe for foreign-aid workers, Aceh relief-operations chief Budi Atmaji said at a news conference: "Yes, in some places."

The military asked aid groups to draw up a list of international relief workers — and to report on their movements — but has yet to offer evidence backing the claims.

The rebels, through a spokesman in Sweden, deny they are threatening aid distribution and say their supporters are among the thousands of victims of the disaster in need of help.

The FPI group said it considered nongovernmental organizations — numbering more than 40 — and foreign military in the overwhelmingly Muslim province of Aceh to be "friends," provided they remained focused on their relief work in the province on the northern tip of Sumatra island.

"We can work together. But if they came here with some hidden agenda — colonialism, imperialism or missionary, I think this is very, very dangerous, and very, very complicated," Hilmy Bakar Almascaty, central board chairman for the FPI, told Reuters.

Indonesia is the world's most-populous Islamic country; Muslims make up 85 percent of nation. Aceh is the most Islamic province of all, with 98 percent of its population Muslim.

The FPI, known for raiding and trashing Jakarta nightspots that sold alcohol during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, is one of many small militant groups that sprang up after the 1998 downfall of President Suharto, who suppressed radical Islam.

Tubagus Sidik, a FPI member wearing a Muslim cap, white T-shirt and rubber boots, said the group planned to clear bodies from three different waterfront areas of Banda Aceh yesterday.

"There is a big ship carried away by the waves and ended up in residential areas. We have reports many corpses are rotting there. Now residents come to us every day to request us to get the corpses," Sidik told Reuters.

"FPI now is known as the corpse handler. FPI is doing something that no one wants to do."

In related developments:

Generosity toward tsunami victims — now at more than $4 billion pledged — should set the standard for caring for the world's most desperate people, Jan Egeland, U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said yesterday. But aid group Oxfam said it fears the money might simply be rerouted from existing funds for Africa.

Egeland said a new outside auditing system will not only further guard against any misuse of funds given to the United Nations but also will make sure governments meet their pledges.

So far, governments and international-development banks have pledged more than $4 billion to aid 5 million tsunami victims across the region. That figure does not include private contributions to many charities.

Sri Lankan authorities are investigating an alleged attempt to sell two children orphaned by the tsunami, a police officer said today in Colombo. A 60-year-old man tried to sell the children, ages 12 and 13, in Balapitiya, said police officer W.D.T. Wijesena. Police were tipped off to the sale and arrested the man yesterday, he said.

The suspect, reportedly the children's grandfather, was released on bail, Wijesena said. The fate of the children was not immediately clear.

Officials in Thailand said the tsunami caused $500 million in damage to the country's shrimp-farming industry and killed more than 100 workers. Thailand sends abroad more than 250,000 tons of shrimp annually and is among the world's top four exporters.

A small Buddhist congregation in Burnaby, B.C., has sold one of its temples to raise money for victims of the Asian tsunami. Abbot Thick Nguyen handed the Canadian Red Cross a check Monday for $405,000, representing the entire proceeds from the sale of the Vietnamese Buddhist Congregation's temple in Mission, east of Vancouver.