India to chair UN-backed ICG

India to chair UN-backed ICG

AUSTRALIA: India was chosen on Wednesday to chair an international group tasked with implementing an early warning system for Indian Ocean countries after the December tsunamis killed more than 200,000 people.

India was elected to the two-year rotating position at the first meeting of the United Nations-backed Inter-governmental Coordination Group (ICG). Indonesia and Mauritius were elected to vice-chair the group.

The international warning system, expected to be in place by July 2006, brings together 27 nations and aims to give them enough time to alert their citizens to incoming waves and avoid a catastrophe.

"We already have a system that is providing warnings. There are already 25 national centers that have been established in the last three months," said Patricio Bernal, head of the UN's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission.

"That is a very important accomplishment. These centers are receiving information now from outside the region, from (the Pacific Ocean warning centers in) Honolulu and Tokyo.

"But we will establish a system that will provide information to those centers from the Indian Ocean. This is the goal," he said. -- AFP