EU to hold ministerial tsunami aid meeting

EU to hold ministerial tsunami aid meeting

Reuters, Brussels

European Union foreign ministers will meet on Friday to co- ordinate efforts to help victims of the Asian tsunami, EU president Luxembourg said, raising the status of a previously planned informal gathering.

Foreign, development and health ministers from the 25-nation bloc will meet to discuss the EU's humanitarian aid and relief pledges to the Indian Ocean states ravaged by the killer wave on Dec. 26.

They will also discuss how to improve EU disaster relief and prepare for a UN donor meeting in Geneva on Jan. 11.

"I'm not expecting any new pledges tomorrow," a senior Luxembourg diplomat told a news conference on Thursday.

"We will try and take stock of what is on the table both from the member states and from the European Union and see then how we can organize both the logistics and the finances."

At a one-day international summit in the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Thursday, the EU's executive Commission pledged 350 million euros (US$463.1 million) in reconstruction aid over three years and an extra 100 million euros in humanitarian aid.

The EU aid contribution to the region stands at $1.99 billion excluding private donations. More than 150,000 people were killed and 1.5 million people were left homeless in the killer wave.

Both Germany and Luxembourg support the creation of partnerships between cities and regions in Europe and Asia to help with reconstruction efforts. Berlin has said it wants EU ministers to discuss the idea at Friday's meeting.

The EU is also mulling the creation of a standing aid corps which could be urgently sent to a disaster zone, another proposal likely to be debated on Friday, but the Luxembourg diplomat said no decisions were expected.