The 60-million dollar project is expected to be completed in three years, said Kusmayanto Kadiman after signing an agreement with Germany's education and research minister Edelgard Bulmahn.

During the first phase of the project 25 seismometers and 10 global positioning system stations would be installed, Kadiman said according to the state Antara news agency.

"We hope the cooperation with Germany will create an integrated system which can produce speedy and accurate data," he said.

Bulmahn said the project would cost some 45 million euro (60 million dollars) and would be part of a regional warning system.

Kadiman said Indonesia would cooperate with countries in the Indian Ocean to establish an integrated tsunami warning system. The UN has said it hopes an Indian Ocean tsunami warning system will be in place by mid-2006.

More than 290,000 people in Asia were killed by the giant waves that swept coastlines after the 9.0 magnitude quake was recorded near Indonesia's Sumatra island on December 26.

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