Scottish businessman Tom Hunter has pledged one million pounds towards rebuilding schools destroyed in the tsunami in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand.

The amount, the largest single donation from Scotland, will also go towards buying schoolbooks.

Hunter, 43, and his Hunter Foundation have already extended more than 100 million pounds to support education initiatives in Scotland.

He said: "This tsunami has visited terrible tragedy upon hundreds of thousands, but, hopefully, it has also awoken the true spirit of human compassion. I hope it will allow us, once and for all, to confine poverty, pain and suffering of the world's poorest to history."

Thousands of schools across India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand were reported to have been completely destroyed in the Dec 26 tsunami.

Hunter, who made much of his estimated 500 million pounds fortune from the Sports Division company, is now one of Britain's biggest charity donors. Last month, he pledged six million pounds to Band Aid to build 240 new schools in Africa.

Aid workers on the ground estimate that Hunter's donation could build up to 800 village schools for the children and tsunami orphans. Hunter said his schools would come complete with blackboards, desks and books.

The one million pounds donation will also help fund a new tsunami early warning system in remote and vulnerable Indian Ocean islands.

Ewan Hunter, chief executive of The Hunter Foundation, said Monday: "We are committed to funding the schools but this will be done in partnership with the local people and local organisations. Together we will meet local needs in the poorest areas where there is the most need."