Bush OKs dramatic increase in tsunami aid.(Chicago Tribune)

Byline: Mark Silva and Stevenson Swanson

WASHINGTON _ With the South Asian tsunami disaster growing "both in size and scope," President Bush on Friday authorized a tenfold increase in humanitarian financial aid from the United States, to $350 million.

The dramatic boost in U.S. aid _ first announced at $4 million, then raised to $15 million and then $35 million _ followed a week in which American generosity had been called into question.

The confirmed death toll in Sunday's earthquake and tsunami passed 121,000 on Friday, and one United Nations estimate said the number was nearing 150,000.

With international aid pledges exceeding $1.1 billion, U.N. officials said that the major problem was no longer raising money but finding ways to transport supplies to devastated areas.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the destruction was so extensive that emergency shipments of drinking water, food and medical supplies were not getting through to the places where they are needed.

The situation is particularly acute in the Indonesian province of Aceh, where roads and airstrips were damaged by the tsunami.