Banda Aceh, Indonesia ? Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz flew Saturday across the devastated wasteland along the Sumatran coast and voiced pride in the American aid operation. But he said the United States wanted to hand over relief work to Indonesia and other affected nations as soon as possible.

The Indonesians “have welcomed us in a way that might have been unimaginable in other circumstances,” Wolfowitz said aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln anchored off the Indonesian coast.

In the ongoing recovery work in Indonesia’s Aceh province, the United Nations Development Program started paying about 3,000 tsunami survivors the equivalent of $3 a day to help with the cleanup — an attempt to kick-start the region’s crippled economy three weeks after the earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 157,000 people.

A U.N. refugee organization was distributing 10,000 five-person tents to survivors in the city, agency officials said, with 10,000 more expected soon.

Efforts to keep epidemics at bay intensified, with the United Nations accelerating a measles vaccination drive after 20 cases of the disease were reported across Aceh.

Tetanus also has been detected in 67 people, said Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders. Because the disease has an incubation period of up to 60 days, that number is expected to increase. Tetanus has a mortality rate of up to 25 percent.

Aid workers were spraying tents and walls with insecticide to kill mosquitoes and prevent malaria in areas that were swamped by the killer waves.

Children who survived the tsunami ask for donations from passersby on the outskirts of Banda Aceh, Indonesia. The death toll from the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami has topped 157,000 across 11 countries, with Indonesia's toll alone reaching more than 110,000.

The United States is keen to use its big aid and recovery effort, which has included many U.S. ships and thousands of troops, to boost American standing in the Muslim world, where Indonesia is the most populous Islamic country.

Jakarta, nevertheless, has expressed unease about the number of foreign troops and wants them out by the end of March.

Wolfowitz, a former ambassador to Indonesia, said the United States respected that concern and had no intention of interfering in Indonesia’s domestic affairs.