A major tsunami benefit concert in Kuala Lumpur will send a powerful reminder to the world that relief efforts are far from over and long-term support is crucial to help rebuild lives, international stars and organisers said today.

The concert on Friday brings together US hip hop act Black Eyed Peas, soul singer Lauryn Hill, boy band Backstreet Boys, R and B stars Boyz II Men, and rapper Wyclef Jean.

They will be joined by Asian artistes including Malaysia's jazz queen Sheila Majid, Hong Kong pop singer Nicholas Tse and former Bond girl Michelle Yeoh.

Staged by Malaysian charity Force of Nature, the concert at a stadium outside Kuala Lumpur is timed to coincide with the Formula One Grand Prix race this weekend and is expected to pull in a crowd of more than 13,000 people, organisers said.

Black Eyed Peas singer Will.I.Am, who toured the Indonesian devastated province of Aceh on Tuesday with Malaysia-born Yeoh, pledged to stay involved with tsunami relief work and help sustain awareness in the United States as media coverage of the crisis eased.

"I think it's important for people like us from America to go back home and let them know that we are far from cleaning that up," he told a joint news conference here.

"I see kids there that are maybe six (years old). When they are 36, they are still going to be cleaning up. When that person's 36 and I am 66, I am still gonna be helping out."

The Aceh trip coincided with his 30th birthday, and the singer said he was deeply touched when children at one school performed a dance for the entourage despite the devastation around them.

"The vision in my head of the kids dancing and welcoming us, that is never going to leave me. It's as if they were saying 'I've lost my family but you guys are my family now'. I was a changed person from that point on," he said.

Love is in the air

On the concert, he added: "Aside from music, love is going to be in the air. That sounds corny but that's the truth."

Hong Kong-based Yeoh, who stared with 007 Pierce Brosnan in "Tomorrow Never Dies," said she was amazed by the Indonesians' resilience and their quiet dignity as they sought to rebuild their lives.

"It's difficult to put into words how we felt, what we saw. The amazing thing is that the people there were fantastic... there was so much tragedy but not for a second did they look at us and say, pity us, do something for us," she said.

"It will be for quite a few years that we have to keep reaching our hands out to them, and helping them get back on their feet and be good neighbours."

Backstreet Boys member Kevin Richardson said the band had been involved in other relief efforts in the United States and felt "a sense of duty and responsibility" to help the region.

"Part of the big effort in this concert is to let people know that it's not over, that there's much still to be done," he said.

RM10 million raised

Razali Ismail, special envoy to Malaysia's tsunami aid efforts who is spearheading the charity, said more than RM10 million have been raised so far.

As the concert is underwritten by a consortium of Malaysian companies, he said all the proceeds would be channelled to projects focusing on education, including the building of schools and training teachers in Aceh for a start.

More concerts are in the offing as well as other non-music related events to raise funds for Sri Lanka and other Indian Ocean nations hit by the Dec 26 catastrophe, he said.

"The effort is not going to stop here. We are in for the long haul. We will be around, these are hands around the world uniting doing something," Razali said.