A release from the Cuban embassy here says the Island was represented by Civil Defense Chief of Staff, Ramon Pardo, and experts from the Disaster Relief Medical Center and Meteorogical Institute.

Pardo said such policy have helped prevent fatalities and material losses despite the US over 40-year financial, economic and commercial blockade.

Pardo noted that poverty and underdevelopment as true cause of the state"s vulnerability whose capacity to prevent and reduced to the lowest possible expression the damages inflicted by disasters are owed to the foreign debt.

The Cuban official called the most developed countries to reduce military expenses and increase their contribution to the developing countries" advancement in terms of protection for the respective populations in the event of disasters.

UN Undersecretary for Humanitarian Affairs, Jan Egeland, said Cuba is among the countries standing as world examples in terms of preparedness and response to natural disasters.

Cuba participates in the Committee that coordinates the Action Program of Hyogo for disaster reduction for the 2005-2015 decade, that regulates cooperation and the Declaration of Kobe.

The more than 1,200 officials from near 150 countries, including numerous ministers, the civil defense, UN officials and representatives from near 30 non-governmental organizations, agreed to set up a global warning system.

The project, to be operational within six months in Kobe, may issue early earnings to prevent floods, droughts, typhoons, and even earthquakes. The lack of one such system is blamed for the disastrous aftermath of the December 26 Tsunami in southern Asia.

The UNESCO General Director Koichiro Matsuura stressed that regional and international cooperation, in addition to the free data exchange, are the only ways to make the global warning system truly effective.

By: Prensa-Lartina