The minister, however, dismissed as ``confusion’’ reports that Khunying Porntip Rojanasunan, the institute deputy director, had been reassigned back to the South to continue work on corpse identification.

He said institute personnel would basically be working out of Bangkok to assist in the identification task. If the police had unresolved queries, they might enlist on-the-spot help from Khunying Porntip but only on request.

The police recently took over the task of identifying dead bodies from Khunying Porntip’s team which had been in charge of the job since the tsunami hit on Dec 26 last year.

The police, who insisted the takeover would streamline and standardise the identification process, had been at odds with Khunying Porntip.

Mr Phongthep said the police had not totally cut off ties. Some analytical information needed deciphering and the institute’s doctors would be helpful.

He said there were simply too many autopsy reports for police doctors to handle alone. Teamwork was essential as no single agency could process a workload of such magnitude, Mr Phongthep said.

He was responding to criticism that the police had stepped in at the most convenient juncture when everything had almost been completed by Khunying Porntip’s team.