STOCKHOLM, Jan. 2 (Xinhuanet) -- The Swedish government on Sunday revised down both the death toll and the number of missing tourists from last Sunday's tsunami in Asia.

    The death toll is now officially put at 52, down from an earlier figure of 59. The number of missing people now stands at 2,915, down from an earlier estimate of 3,500 after 1,170 names werecrossed out and new names were added to the missing list.

    "The numbers go down, but then they also go up," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Arne Kallin.

    As time drags on, chances for the survival of the missing tourists is becoming remote.

    Aircraft carrying evacuated Swedes continued to arrive at Stockholm's Arlanda international airport throughout the weekend. About 2,000 Swedes landed in the night, and some were driven straight to hospital in ambulances.

    The Foreign Ministry said there are some Swedes hospitalized inThailand.

    Sweden had obtained authorization from Thai authorities to senda freight aircraft with 12 cooling containers and 2,000 body bags to fly bodies home.

    The main Swedish effort is now concentrated on identifying the dead.

    "All bodies will be examined," promised Stig Edqvist, head of the Swedish ID commission in Thailand.

    The Nordic country was hit by the tsunami to such an extent that Prime Minister Goeran Persson had predicted last week that everyone in Sweden would know somebody affected by the disaster. The country has a population of 9 million.

    Grieving Swedes have contributed a record sum of near 400 million kronor (60.4 million US dollars) to relief efforts, aid organizations said on Sunday.

    Meanwhile, organizations stepped up efforts to help children cope with a tragedy that no child should ever be confronted with.

    Efforts to help children will now enter a new phase as survivors, among them many children, return from Asia, bringing with them traumatic memories of death and mayhem. Many children were deprived of parents or siblings in the catastrophe.

    The Swedish branch of non-governmental organization Save the Children said it had set up helplines immediately after the extentof the tragedy became known, and received some 200 calls in the week after the disaster.

    The organization said now one of its tasks is to help teachers and educators in explaining the inexplicable to children when theyface school classes after the Christmas holiday on January 10. Enditem