Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has estimated damage at five billion dollars (more than four billion euros) from the devastating tremor that hit some 50 of the country's 1,400 localities.

"It is unlikely the situation will return to normal for at least two years," he has cautioned.

The last official toll of the quake, which hit on May 21, 2003 with a strength of 6.8 on the open-ended Richter scale, listed 2,277 dead and more than 11,000 wounded, when it was published a month after the quake.

More bodies have been recovered since, though many may never be identified.

"Every time I pass by vacant lots where buildings once stood, I remember that horrible night when my friends, my students disappeared, forever," said a tearful Meriem, a teacher in Boumerdes, a town 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of the capital and the city worst hit in the disaster along with neighboring Zemmouri.

She is overcome with emotion when she recalls the "beautiful young girls, full of life and hope who were preparing for their secondary school leaving exams, the teachers, my friends, covered, crushed by tonnes of concrete."

Here and there, buildings with huge gashes or half standing have been transformed into worksites, contracted hastily to construction firms of sometimes sketchy qualifications. Much of the work seems to drag on endlessly, as piles of debris and concrete build up.

Tens of thousands of people still live in temporary housing incongruously known as "chalets" measuring only 30 square meters (322 square feet) though often sheltering families of eight to 10, left homeless by the quake and awaiting a new residence.

The scope of the tremor touched off a great wave of international solidarity. France, the former colonial power, notably released the same month a special loan of 50 million euros (59 million dollars) in reconstruction aid for Algeria.

Thousands of aftershocks continued to hit the region after the big one on May 21, sometimes triggering panicky flight by terrorized residents.

On May 28, some 330 people were wounded in one such exodus when a strong tremor of 5.8 on the Richter scale followed a few hours after another of 5.2.

On February 11, 2004, another 300 people were wounded in similar circumstances, when a 5.7-point quake again shook Algiers and its surroundings.

Many buildings crumbled like sandcastles in the quake, disclosing major violations of building codes and less than acceptable construction practices.

Building firms and architects were accused of rampant corruption for flouting the most basic security regulations and norms for erecting buildings in an earthquake zone.

An official probe opened by the housing ministry has yet to disclose its findings.

Authorities reacted in June 2003 by setting stringent new regulations for private and public construction in quake-prone zones.

The government, in particular, has produced diagrams detailing a region's vulnerability to quakes and promised they will be regularly updated to "reduce seismic risk" in the country.

It has also promised to start "studying the vulnerability of strategic buildings and other major structures in the country's north," the most populated region of Algeria.

TERRA.WIRE