On Sunday Prime Minister Paul Martin said that Canada will double its aid to south Asian countries damaged by the tsunami to at least $80 million.

He also said that the disaster assistance team from Canada would be deployed for the first time in five years to one of the dozen countries reeling from the natural disaster.

An RCMP team of ten forensic experts will be dispatched to Thailand to help identify the dead there.

According to Martin, “Canada stands ready to do more.”

In a direct message to the millions bereaved or left homeless, Prime Minister Martin said: “Canada and the world stands with you … not simply for a week or a month, but for as long as you need us.”

Three cabinet ministers from Canada will be sent to Thailand, Indonesia and India to determine what more help might be needed.

At least 150 Canadian citizens are still missing after the tsunami hit while five Canadians are confirmed dead.

The Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) is always on 48- hour standby in case of emergency. An advance team of Canadian officials was sent to the stricken area last week to assess the need for DART.

On Friday the team’s leaders were put on notice that they should be prepared to move at any time.

Questions have been raised about why Canada was initially slow to respond to the news of the disaster in Asia and why just one senior cabinet minister was available in the first few days of the crisis. Martin, who returned late Saturday from a holiday in Morocco, said he had all of the sophisticated communications equipment needed to coordinate Canadian reaction to the crisis from where he was vacationing.

Critics had urged the Canadian government to swiftly deploy the 200-member DART team, which includes a mobile hospital as well as a water purification unit. But officials had said they must wait until a formal request is made.

DART was last deployed five years ago after a massive earthquake in Turkey. The unwieldy team doesn’t move quickly- officials have said it would take twenty-four Hercules fights to ferry all its equipment and personnel to the disaster. The team won’t be in place to begin administering aid until almost two weeks after the Tsunami disaster occurred.