Tsunami warning system within two years: UN

UNESCO will lead efforts to set up a provisional tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean within 18 months, at a cost of more than $30 million.

UNESCO will lead efforts to set up a provisional tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean within 18 months, at a cost of more than $30 million, the organisation's director-general said on Wednesday.

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The provisional tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean will precede work on a global early warning system, which is expected to be ready by the end of 2007.

World leaders have called for a tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean to make sure there is never a repeat of the December 26 disaster that killed more than 1,50,000 people.

A final decision on what kind of tsunami warning system the world will have will be made in June, after experts have met to discuss it, said Koichiro Matsuura, head of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Setting up of the interim system will require an investment of $30 million, excluding maintenance cost, Matsuura told journalists.

Matsuura did not give any other details of the proposed global tsunami warning system.

He asked potential donors to be generous in funding the project, as they have been in giving aid to victims of the tsunami in the Indian Ocean.

There is no formal warning system for tsunamis in southern Asia, which was hit hardest by December's tsunami. The Indian Ocean rarely has tsunamis.

Countries in the Pacific, where tsunamis are more frequent, have access to a warning network based in Hawaii that is credited with saving thousands of lives.