Colombo, Jan. 2. (PTI): Some 29,729 people are confirmed dead and 5,240 reported missing in Sri Lanka after last week's tsunami devastation, officials said today.

About 16, 665 people living on over three-quarters of the island's coastline were injured and some 805,978 people made homeless in the giant wave violence, the Disaster Management Unit in the president's office said.

Officials put the number of houses destroyed at 91,059 while 24,942 were partly damaged.

President Chandrika Kumaratunaga said on Thursday that she expected the casualty figure to rise "in the next few days" as the people listed as missing were declared dead.

She said the cost of reconstruction would be a little under a billion US dollars and expected the massive operation to begin on January 15.