Some 3,000 soldiers, police, local officials, volunteers and residents labored to clean up homes and streets in the hardest-hit areas, especially in the sleepy seaside resort town of Pangandaran, following last week's disaster.

Television reports showed masses of debris being burned in Pangandaran, as well as residents clearing up their destroyed homes and businesses.

A 7.7-magnitude undersea earthquake struck off Java on Monday, unleashing giant waves that swept away homes and businesses along the densely-populated coast, sparking memories of the devastating 2004 Asian tsunami.

According to the latest death toll issued by the national disaster agency, 439 people were killed in West Java province, 154 in Central Java and three in Yogyakarta.

Another 73 were still missing and more than 9,500 others injured following the tsunami, the agency said, without explaining why the toll had dropped by more than 50 from the previous day.

More than 74,000 people were displaced, mainly around Pangandaran, which bore the brunt of the tsunami.

But following the release of the new toll figures, local officials said at least four more bodies had been found in and around the town.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, during a whirlwind visit to the disaster zone, on Friday ordered local authorities to speed up clearing the rubble and debris left by the receding waves.

Yudhoyono said the ruins and debris would otherwise continue to cause "psychological trauma" for the local population.

Officials said Sunday the clean-up effort was to last until August 3.

"As a follow up of the presidential instruction... authorities have set a time limit of two weeks from Saturday for the cleaning up operations," Wasdi bin Umri, spokesman for Ciamis district, told AFP.

"More reinforcements have since arrived from the surrounding district, bringing the total number of soldiers involved in the clean up and search operations to over 1,000," he said.

He said nearly 1,000 police were deployed in Ciamis to help, while the local administration had mobilized 300 personnel in addition to more than 600 volunteers.

Search efforts and clean-up operations were also continuing in neighbouring Cilacap district.

"We are mobilizing all our effective personnel, be that from the government, the armed forces, the military or volunteers, to clear up the coastline while at the same time searching for possible victims still buried under the sand or debris," said district spokesman Arismunandar.

Officials were trying to reassure frightened survivors living in special camps, afraid of another tsunami, that it was safe to return home, the spokesman said.

"We are spreading the message from the meteorology office which says that the number of aftershocks have been continuously dwindling from Monday and that there was no more danger of tsunami," he said.

The number of aftershocks had declined from 26 on the day of the tsunami to just one on Saturday, an official at the meteorology office was quoted by the Detikcom online news service as saying.

The tsunami is just the latest in a string of natural disasters to hit Indonesia over the past two years. Some 168,000 Indonesians died in the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Less than two months ago, Java was hit by a 6.3-magnitude quake that killed more than 5,800 people.

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