Thursday, January 20 2005 14:22 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kobe (Japan): The United Nations was today (Jan 20, 2005) put in charge of sorting out differences among countries offering to build a tsunami early warning system after a flood of proposals in the wake of the Indian Ocean tragedy.

Salvano Briceno, head of the UN disaster reduction group, said that a system to warn of giant waves in the Indian Ocean was still on track to be running in 12 to 18 months.

A draft of the common statement of the 150 countries meeting in Kobe, Japan agreed the United Nations "would integrate regional disaster reduction strategies".

But the draft called for two more meetings; one of Ministers on January 28-29 on the tsunami-hit Thai Island of Phuket to review the Kobe conference and one in Bonn in early 2006 to review implementation.

Germany, Japan, the United States and Australia have all offered to put their technology to use in the Indian Ocean after the waves smashed into 11 nations' coasts on December 26, killing nearly a quarter of a million people.

In addition to the four countries, which are the biggest donors to tsunami-hit countries, Briceno said that offers at least to contribute to an early warning system had also come from India, China, France, Thailand and Indonesia.

"They all have capacities they want to make available," Briceno told reporters.

"So the idea is that we will assess with those affected countries and the donor countries the role with which each of them can play," he said.

He said that millions of Dollars in Government contributions were being sent to UN agencies to start with implementation.