Wellington  - The government of the Pacific island of Samoa decided Saturday to hold a mass funeral for the 135 confirmed victims of the devastating tsunami triggered by a magnitude-8.0 earthquake.

The decision followed two meetings to consult grieving families, who were initially unhappy about the proposal because Samoans usually bury their dead close to their homes and other family graves on ancestral land in traditional villages, Radio New Zealand reported from the capital Apia.

The Samoan government offered to pay the casket and cemetery costs for the victims and agreed to postpone the mass funeral by a day to give relatives living overseas time to arrive.

The families finally agreed to a mass grave after many survivors said they did not want to return to their old villages on the coast.

They regard them as being on cursed land after their homes were flattened by the tsunami on Tuesday, a Radio New Zealand correspondent said.

Another 32 people died in neighbouring American Samoa and nine on Tonga's northern island of Niuatoputapu, where thousands were also made homeless.

The region has barely stopped shaking since Tuesday's massive earthquake and many survivors fear another devastating quake. The US Geological Survey has recorded one aftershock measuring 6.1, 49 of magnitude 5 or higher, and 33 of 4.5 or higher since then. (dpa)