The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will begin holding meetings this month with representatives of the nations hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami that struck on December 26 and killed more than 225,000 people. The goal of the meetings is to help establish an early warning system for tsunamis by the end of the year. Koiechiro Matsuura, the director general of UNESCO, pledged on January 13 that UNESCO would facilitate the establishment of a warning center that would be in operation in the Indian Ocean by the end of 2006 and be operating globally by 2007. At a meeting scheduled for March 3, representatives from the countries affected by the tsunami will learn more about the warning systems already in place in the Pacific Ocean and gain an insight into the possible application of those and other technologies to help meet their own needs.
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