Port Louis, Mauritius, Jan. 12 (AP): A UN agency will lead efforts to set up a provisional tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean within 18 months, at a cost of more than $30 million, the Unesco director-general said today.

The provisional tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean will precede work on the global early warning system, which is expected to be ready by the end of 2007.

World leaders have called for a tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean to make sure there is never a repeat of the December 26 disaster that killed more than 150,000 people.

A final decision on what kind of system the world will have will be made in June, after experts have met to discuss it, said Koichiro Matsuura, head of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

Setting up of the interim system will require an investment of $30 million, excluding maintenance cost, Matsuura said. He did not give any other details of the proposed global system.

He asked potential donors to be generous in funding the project, as they have been in giving aid to victims of the tsunami in the Indian Ocean.