Patricio Bernal, executive secretary of the UN's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission which is charged with implementing the system, said there was a major shortfall of money to undertake system installations and upgradation in Indian Ocean rim nations.

"I am issuing an appeal to those managing the funds of UN donor nations to be aware there is an urgent need for resources," Bernal said at a coordinating session.

"On a project submitted to the UN Flash Appeal we requested 12 million dollars for the project."

"Now we have five million and to take the project to completion in 2008 we need the additional seven million dollars soon. Even then we cannnot expect to undertake significant programmes such as awareness-raising and risk management," he said.

Most Indian Ocean nations did not have an early warning system when a massive undersea earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra last December unleashed the giant waves, killing some 220,000 people in 11 countries.

The UN commission was established at a conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in Paris in June with a mandate to set up a warning system and promote tsunami awareness.

It set up a coordination group for the regional tsunami warning system during its first meeting in Australia.

Bernal, who is also UNESCO assistant director general, said the three-day meeting of the coordination group in Hyderabad saw "movement forward" in terms of upgrading tsunami and seismic networks across the Indian Ocean.

"The other achievements are plans to establish deep sea sensors and the decision of scientists to come out with maps pinpointing the danger areas (inundation maps) once the tsunamis strike," he said.

The Hyderabad meeting recommended guidelines for a "risk management framework" which includes making 'hazard maps' showing areas of high potential for tsunami inundation, 'risk maps' to capture the potential impact of tsunamis on the environment, population and economy and 'evacuation maps.'

The UN group said English will be the common language for issuing tsunami alerts in the Indian Ocean region and tsunami network upgradation plans would be completed by next year.

"The deep sea sensor installation will be over in 2008. We also request the Indian Ocean nations to pump in some of the funds they earmarked for tsunami rehabilitation towards buulding the networks and for implementing plans for better preparedness," Bernal said.

The third meeting of the UN commission's group was slated to be held in Indonesia.

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