JAKARTA, Indonesia – Secretary of State Powell said yesterday the outpouring of American aid and humanitarian help in the region devastated by the tsunami may also help Muslim nations see America in a better light.

“What it does in the Muslim world, the rest of the world, is giving an opportunity to see American generosity, American values in action,” Mr. Powell said after meeting with Hassan Wirayuda, his Indonesian counterpart.

In Washington, the State Department said 16 Americans – eight in Thailand and eight in Sri Lanka – died in the disaster.

Spokesman Adam Ereli said he could provide no estimate of how many Americans were missing. “What we are trying to do is work systematically through all the calls we’ve received and account for the whereabouts of all those calls,” he said.

However, Mr. Ereli said “we will soon be in a position to be a little more specific.”

Earlier, Mr. Powell said that “there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,000 Americans that we are trying to get track of. I don’t know how many of them were in Thailand, how many where elsewhere, and I don’t even know if they should be called ‘missing.’ We are just trying to track them down. They are identified to us as a result of calls that have come in from their family members. And so, we hope that their number will be reduced in the days ahead as we call back to families and say, ‘Have you heard from your loved one yet?’ So, we’ll being running that number down, but I don’t how many of them actually might be victims.”

Mr. Powell said he hopes Muslim countries see the wide range of American aid and involvement around the world, of which the disaster relief is only the latest example.

“We are supporting these activities because we believe it is in the best interest of those countries and it’s in our best interest, and it dries up those pools of dissatisfaction, which might give rise to terrorist activity,” Mr. Powell said.

Meanwhile, in an interview with Thailand’s Independent Television, Mr. Powell again rejected criticism of the American response as being slow. President Bush did not increase American aid to $350 million until six days after the disaster; the initial aid package was $15 million.

“Who criticized us? It wasn’t the countries in the region,” he said.

And, Mr. Powell said, he called the foreign ministers of the devastated countries right away and Mr. Bush spoke to heads of government and state within 48 hours. “So I don’t accept the criticism that some in the media have given to the United States that we were slow,” he said.

The Powell entourage was staying at the Jakarta Marriot, which was bombed in the fall of 2003 and has since been rebuilt. Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim country.

Mr. Powell said earlier that America may be able to do more to help identify the remains of tsunami victims and pledged American support for a regional warning system in the hope of preventing such a massive loss of life in the future.

Getting his first up-close look at the heavy damage from last week’s undersea earthquake and tsunami, Mr. Powell visited Thailand’s Phuket resort area, one of the most popular destinations for European and American beachgoers.

Mr. Powell and Governor Bush, a Republican of Florida, saw scores of photographs and posters posted outside the town hall seeking information on missing tourists.

Thai officials told Mr. Powell the thing they most want is American help for a warning system in the Indian Ocean and China Sea, and Mr. Powell pledged American technical help for such a system.

Meanwhile, another gripping tale of survival emerged from the December 26 disaster that killed an estimated 150,000 people and left 5 million in need. Officials said an Indonesian man swept out to sea was found alive, afloat on tree branches and debris about 100 miles from shore.

Also, haggard and dehydrated survivors of Asia’s tsunami catastrophe flooded hospitals in the disaster zone yesterday, posing a new challenge for the global relief operation.

A 5.8-magnitude quake, the latest of numerous aftershocks stemming from the monstrous temblor that spawned the tsunami, rattled India’s Andaman Islands early today. There were no immediate reports of further injuries or damage on the islands, which were hard hit by the killer waves.