Swedish foreign minister Laila Freivals (right) comforts a Swedish survivor in Phuket, Thailand. (AFP)

Stockholm, Dec. 29 (Reuters): Scandinavia and Germany, fond of viewing Asia as a winter refuge, faced up to the possibility that a tsunami had turned a tropical paradise into hell for hundreds of friends and loved ones.

More than 2,000 Scandinavians and about 1,000 Germans were still missing today, a full three days after disaster struck. European leaders held out hope for signs of life while simultaneously trying to prepare their peoples for the worst. Throughout Europe, the Indian Ocean disaster dominated the news. Some channels extended broadcasts to cover the tragedy.

Norway?s foreign minister said the tsunami, a wall of water that killed around 70,000 people, threatened to become one of the worst disasters for the Nordic nation in modern times.

In Berlin, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder cancelled his winter holiday as the scale of the tragedy became clear. He told Germans to expect that hundreds of missing compatriots had been killed.

The Swedish government, accused by local media of underestimating the problem and being too slow to respond, sent its foreign minister to Thailand, and the Scandinavian airline SAS scrambled extra planes to bring holidaymakers home. Sweden?s King Carl XVI Gustaf made a rare public broadcast to commiserate with the families and victims.

?The catastrophe in Thailand will cast a shadow over Sweden for a long time. The injured and dead must be brought home and the survivors taken care of,? the tabloid Aftonbladet wrote. ?The government made blunder after blunder, the people?s verdict could be harsh.?

Governments around Europe opened telephone helplines. Friends and families were also posting the names of their missing loved ones on Internet message boards in the hope of receiving news. Concern was growing for tourists from elsewhere as well. Israel, with 100 missing, suspected the tsunami could have killed more Israelis than any Palestinian suicide bombing in a four-year-old uprising. News of the hunt for survivors eclipsed upcoming Palestinian elections and Israeli political rumblings.

?I cannot recall facing such a terrible problem of despair for years,? commented Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on a visit to a control room set up to help track down Israelis caught in the disaster. Asia's beaches are a top destination for Israeli youngsters.