US military cyclone aid finishes

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US marines and sailors who helped bring help to victims of last month's cyclone in Bangladesh have attended a farewell ceremony to formally end their mission.

US civilian agencies, including USAid, will continue helping people hit by Cyclone Sidr.

Helicopters from the USS Tarawa were deployed in dropping food, water and medicine to survivors.

Officials say the Tarawa, which distributed aid after a 1991 cyclone, will soon leave Bangladeshi waters.

'Suffering humanity'

"We did something special. We saved lives," Marine Brig Gen Ronald L Bailey said at the farewell ceremony at Dhaka army headquarters.

US helicopters delivered clean water and other supplies

The US military aid mission in Bangladesh - Sea Angel II - began on 23 November, a week after the cyclone struck, killing about 3,500 people and leaving millions without food and shelter.

Bangladeshi army officials praised the US for its relief effort.

"You shall be leaving Bangladesh, but marks of your presence will remain in the sands of our coast and of course in the depth of hearts of millions of suffering humanity," Lt-Gen Masud Uddin Chowdhury told his American counterparts on Friday.

A spokeswoman at the American embassy, Geeta Pasi, told the Associated Press news agency that the priority now is to meet the survivors' long-term needs.

The Bangladesh government meanwhile says that the relief effort is progressing well.

On Thursday it announced that it had over-estimated the amount of rice it needed to import in the wake of the storm.