In the worst-hit city of Padang, hundreds of schools were among the thousands of structures destroyed in the 7.6-magnitude quake which struck off the western coast of Sumatra last Wednesday.

Around a quarter of the city's buildings were flattened and almost all structures suffered at least superficial damage.

The official death toll from the Indonesian government stands at about 650, but the United Nations says the number is closer to 1,100 and estimates go as high as 5,000.

"There are no local government regulations to ensure buildings in Padang are constructed to withstand quakes," construction contractor Akbari told AFP.

"The problem is new building contractors only care about profiting from these projects. They failed to construct buildings fit enough to withstand quakes."

West Sumatra Governor Gamawan Fauzi admitted the government needed to improve the quality of construction in the city of almost one million people, which lies near one of the most volatile seismic fault lines in the world.

Seismologists agree that Padang will face more earthquakes in future, and warn that a much larger quake with far greater destructive force is inevitable in the region.

"We need to implement new regulations in the future, or at least make the criterea to obtain a building permit stricter," Fauzi said.

"We have to realise that West Sumatra is prone to disaster."

Public facilities such as malls, hospitals and schools built in Padang are supposed to be able to withstand magnitude-eight earthquakes, he said.

"What's lacking is enforcement," said Dewi Fortuna Anwar, of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, which has conducted training activities with the government on how to handle earthquakes.

"The government must stipulate clear and proper building guidelines and ensure that builders comply to the rules."

Indonesian Red Crescent secretary-general Djazuli Ambari said corruption, not just poor enforcement, was to blame for much of the damage wrought by the latest quake to hit the Southeast Asian archipelago.

"There's so much corruption in Indonesia ... Money is available and it shouldn't be a problem building houses with strong foundations, but unfortunately it's been misused," he said.

"Those who suffer from corruption are the people. Life is precious and people shouldn't die because of the government's mismanagement."

Padang resident Sribersihwati, 30, suspected that many buildings collapsed because corrupt officials and builders profited by breaking construction standards.

"That's why builders can get away with using low-quality materials. Why do you think so many major buildings collapsed so easily?" she said.

Education ministry secretary-general Dodi Nandika said a staggering 887 school buildings had been destroyed by the quake, causing an unknown number of children to lose their lives.

But he denied that corruption had contributed to the disaster.

"The quake had close to 8.0 magnitude. It was huge. Even buildings beside schools were destroyed," he said.

Australian seismologist Gary Gibson warned that one day, Padang and the towns surrounding it would be rocked by a far larger earthquake.

"This quake wasn't even on the Australian-Indian plate boundary. It ducked underneath the Asian plate," Gibson said. "That means it was big, but nowhere near as big as one on the plate boundary would be."

"Australia is moving north 70 millimetres (2.8 inches) a year. That means every hundred years it's moving seven metres (23 feet), which is what's causing all of this.

"You can expect an enormous quake in the region at least every 100 years, although we don't know when it's going to hit."

earlier related report
Aid pours into quake-hit Indonesia
Fresh international earthquake aid flowed into Indonesia on Tuesday as schools and shops re-opened amid the stench of death from bodies still trapped beneath the rubble.

At the crumpled Ambacang Hotel in the city centre, excavators briefly ceased digging when workers thought they heard a woman's cries for help, but a search revealed no further signs of life.

"There's no one alive. I stopped all the machinery to ensure that the family of the victims were satisfied," the commander of the clean-up operation, Haris Sarjana, told AFP.

Another 10 bodies were pulled from wreckage around Padang, including six from the Ambacang, provincial disaster management operation head Ade Edward said.

"We've also started to spray disinfectant to get rid of the stench and are clearing up the debris using heavy machinery," he added.

In the rugged hills to the east and north of the city, hundreds of people remained buried beneath massive landslides that swallowed villages when the 7.6-magnitude quake struck off the coast of western Sumatra last Wednesday.

A Red Cross official said the final death toll would exceed 3,000, although the national Disaster Management Agency put the latest toll at 704, with 295 missing.

Between 170,000-200,000 homes were damaged, with about half this number completely destroyed, said Bob McKerrow, the head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Indonesia.

Helicopters dropped vital supplies to cut-off farming communities which relief workers could not reach by road.

More choppers were on their way aboard US Navy ships in a multimillion-dollar effort to aid victims of the earthquake, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said in Washington.

About 45 metric tonnes (50 tons) of relief goods from US Agency for International Development stockpiles were due to arrive in Padang on Tuesday.

"This includes plastic sheeting, hygiene kits, generators and this will all be distributed via the Red Cross," Kelly told reporters.

Meanwhile, a US Navy field hospital that will treat up to 400 people a day was opened in Padang and would start treating patients on Wednesday, a US official said.

The United States is also sending a seven-person mobile field surgical team and two warships with helicopters that will fly to the hardest-hit rural areas.

Australia has sent military engineers and medics on the ground, and two C-130 aircraft transporting personnel, equipment and stores between Jakarta and Padang, the Australian embassy said.

Most foreign search and rescue teams are leaving the country, with almost no hope any more survivors will be found beneath the debris seven days after the quake.

As the aid effort shifted gear, the city began to show signs of recovery.

"Sixty percent of markets have reopened, the schools have all reopened, people have gone back to work and fishermen have gone back to sea," Padang Mayor Fauzi Bahar told AFP.

The UN children's agency UNICEF said almost 70,000 children, or about 40 percent of the city's students, were back in class Tuesday.

"This is an important sign that life will return to normal for children affected by this tragedy," UNICEF country representative Angela Kearney said.

The government has pledged six trillion rupiah (624 million dollars) for reconstruction efforts in Sumatra, but many fear the money will be lost to corruption as it flows through the local government.

"It gets thinner and thinner and then just a mouse's tail comes out the bottom. That's Indonesia," housewife Edib Mulyati told AFP in the village of Bunga Pasang on the outskirts of Padang.

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