The Defense Agency sent a 20-member team Tuesday to South Asia to assess what the Self-Defense Forces can do to help survivors of the Dec. 26 earthquake and widespread killer tsunamis.

The move follows a request by Indonesia, which asked for particular help in the fields of transportation and medicine, the agency said.

The team, consisting of agency officials and SDF officers, departed from Narita International Airport on an airliner for Utapao, Thailand, where nations have set up headquarters to coordinate relief efforts.

The team will next visit airports and other locations in hardest-hit Indonesia, followed by Malaysia, which the agency says will probably offer the use of airports to relay aid supplies.

The number of personnel and type of equipment to be sent will be determined after the advance team completes a field study, expected to take a few days. The government might dispatch one or two C-130 transport airplanes of the Air Self-Defense Force, the agency said.

Japan will also send medical and helicopter units of the Ground Self-Defense Force and a Maritime Self-Defense Force transport ship. Japan's help will focus on northern Sumatra, the agency said.

According the government plan, up to 800 SDF members may be sent. This would make it the largest emergency relief operation conducted by the SDF since it was allowed by domestic law to participate in overseas emergency humanitarian missions in 1992.

"We hope to dispatch a unit as soon as it's ready to go, after assessing the advance team's findings," an agency official said.