Tuesday, January 18 2005 12:29 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Port Blair: India is looking for regional co-operation from South-East Asian countries to put together an Indian Ocean tsunami warning system, Union Home secretary Dhirendra Singh said.

"The Pacific countries already have a tsunami warning system. Countries in the Indian Ocean region will now have to put their heads together to create an integrated warning system in the region," Singh told reporters after his whirlwind visit to the tsunami-ravaged archipelago.

Pointing out that the country had remarkable expertise in cyclone warning and had also created district-wise maps to track disaster-proneness in terms of floods and droughts, he said that tsunami was the only natural disaster to be researched by the country.

"Of course we cannot predict earthquakes because there is no technology available to do so, but we can certainly track a tsunami," he said.

Top scientists of the country would meet in New Delhi on January 21 and 22 to study the existing tsunami watch system of the Pacific region countries and decide on the type of warning system suitable for the Indian Ocean region.

"The Pacific region countries have a ring of censors across the ocean. You never know, the tracking center for the Indian Ocean region could be Port Blair itself," he said.