A temblor on December 26, 2003 measured just 6.7 on the Richter scale but flattened the mudbrick Iranian city of Bam on the ancient silk route, killing more than 31,000 people and leaving 75,000 homeless.

Sunday's massive tremor in the Far East measured a whopping 8.9 -- the biggest recorded in four decades -- whipping huge tidal waves across the Bay of Bengal, all the way from the Maldives and Sri Lanka in the southwest to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia in the southeast.

By nightfall, more than 4,000 people had already been confirmed dead and officials warned the toll was likely to rise sharply.

The Islamic authorities in Iran organized official commemorations of last year's quake on Saturday -- the anniversary according to the Iranian calendar.

The city is still in ruins, its once magnificent citadel devastated and social problems are legion amid complaints from residents that the pace of reconstruction has been too slow.

Some 5,000 survivors gathered in a mass graveyard in Bam to mark the end of the official 12-month mourning period on Saturday but it is likely to decades for the shattered town to overcome the destruction and grief left by one of the deadliest earthquakes in modern history.

The Iranian authorities blamed sloppy builders for the size of the death toll that eventally totalled 31,884, with another 18,000 wounded, 5,000 orphaned and 1,700 widowed.

They have also accused foreign governments of failing to deliver on aid pledges made in the immediate aftermath.

President Mohammad Khatami charged Wednesday that just 17 million dollars out of the one billion promised had ever been handed over.

Zahra, 45, who was among the black-clad mourners Saturday, tearfully recalled the massive jolt that wiped out most of her family.

"I was preparing to go to prayer with my eldest son. All of a sudden the ground started to tremble. Everything collapsed around us. We saved our lives by going into the garden.

"We heard the cries of survivors from underneath the ruins. My son rushed to take his father, his brother and his sister out from beneath the ruins. After several hours of work, he succeeded but they were already dead."

UNESCO plans to hold a ceremony on Monday in Bam marking the earthquake and the city's inclusion on the UN body's list of World Heritage sites.

An international conference is also planned in in the second half of next year to mobilize support for the restoration of the city, UNESCO said.

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