The “core group” of nations announced by US President George W. Bush to channel aid to victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami will be dissolved on Thursday after only eight days as the United Nations takes control of the international relief effort, delegates to a donors summit said on Wednesday.

Mr Bush’s initiative on December 29 - which at first included only the US, India, Japan and Australia - appeared to have been prompted by an accusation by Jan Egeland, the UN’s emergency relief coordinator, that the US was “stingy”. The UN was included the next day after Mr Bush was criticised for sidelining the UN in a rescue operation involving dozens of countries.