Americans can adopt children orphaned by the December 26 quake and tsunamis in South Asia only when their countries of origin make them available for adoption, the US government has said.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services believes it will take many months before the affected countries will be able to identify the children who are actually orphans.

"It is only if and when these countries decide to make these orphans available for international adoption that American citizens will be able to begin adoption proceedings for those children who also qualify as orphans as defined in the Immigration and Nationality Act," USCIS said in a statement on Wednesday.

While commending American citizens for their generosity in the aftermath of the quake-induced tsunami, which hit the Indian Ocean region on December 26, 2004, USCIS said that adopting the tsunami-affected children was not the recommended solution in the short term.

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"The international standard among adoption professionals in a crisis is to keep children as close to their family members and community as possible. It is often difficult to determine whether children whose parents are missing are truly orphans," the statement said.

Many children have become separated from one or both of their parents whose fate was unknown, the USCIS said.

"Even when children are indeed orphaned, they are often taken in by other relatives. Staying with relatives in extended family units is generally a better solution than uprooting the child completely," it added.

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