THE body of a British backpacker who died in the Asian tsunami disaster has been formally identified and flown back to the UK, police have confirmed.

Leanne Cox, 23, from Hartlepool, was reported missing following the Boxing Day disaster that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

Authorities in Thailand are understood to have only formally identified her body last Friday, after forensic tests.

An inquest was opened on Wednesday by the West London Coroner's Office, which is carrying out inquiries into UK victims.

Miss Cox had been staying in a beach hostel with friends in the resort of Koh Phi Phi when the giant waves struck.

Her family later travelled to Thailand to try to find her, and her father, Alan, launched a website in a bid to help other families in the same plight.

Miss Cox had been working in Australia and New Zealand during a year out after finishing a degree at Leeds University. She was spending Christmas in Thailand.

A Cleveland Police spokeswoman said arrangements were being made for the funeral.

She said: "The family do not wish to make any further comment and would like to be left alone to grieve her death."

A spokesman for the Foreign Office could not confirm when Miss Cox's body was found, but said a DNA match was made.

He said: "There are still a lot of bodies out there which are being held in storage, and identifying them can be a lengthy process.

"When the first bodies were found, they were able to be visually identified.

"But since then, there has been a formal internationally-recognised identification process involving the matching of DNA, which is ongoing."

The tsunami, a series of huge waves that fanned out across the Indian Ocean, was triggered by a powerful earthquake off the coast of Indonesia.

It claimed about 150,000 lives, including 135 Britons, and left millions of people homeless.

The Foreign Office said nine Britons remained on the missing list, and were highly likely to have been caught up in the tragedy.