KOBE -- As the United Nations World Conference on Disaster Reduction headed into its final two days Friday, NGOs and some member states warned that the five-day parley would be a failure unless it culminated in specific action on disaster reduction measures, especially in the Indian Ocean region.
A formal statement on the Indian Ocean tsunamis will be included in the conference's final document, the Hyogo Declaration, to be issued Saturday. John Horekens, a U.N. spokesman, said the declaration will follow closely a draft statement released Thursday after a high-level session on the disaster underscored the need for an early warning system in the region.
Although delegates agreed Thursday that the early warning system currently used in the Pacific would be the initial model for an Indian Ocean system, and although U.N. officials believe they can have a system up and running within a year, the draft was criticized for lacking specifics.