Japan Unveils Tsunami Warning System Plan

TOKYO (AP) _ Japan on Thursday launched a stop-gap plan for alerting Indian Ocean nations of impending tsunami: it will send them a fax within half an hour, an official said.

After the Dec. 26 Asian tsunami, Japan and the United States -- the world's most advanced in tsunami warnings -- have said they will monitor earthquakes and tsunami in the Indian Ocean and notify countries until a new regional network is up and running.

Using data from its seismographs and buoys in the Indian Ocean, Japan's Meteorological Agency has agreed to fax to Sri Lanka and Singapore information on quakes bigger than magnitude-7 and possible tsunami within 30 minutes of the initial tremors, an agency official said on condition of anonymity.

The network, which may be expanded later to include a total of 25 countries, was being tested when a magnitude-8.7 quake hit off Indonesia's Sumatra island late Monday, the official said. The agency managed to fax information to 11 Indian Ocean countries and local authorities then ordered residents in coastal communities to flee to high ground, the official said.

Among the countries and territories to which Japan's Meteorological Agency has offered to supply information are Australia, Indonesia, India, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, the Maldives, Mozambique, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Tanzania and Thailand.

Indian Ocean countries and territories will receive a separate alert from the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. They are trying to build a system by mid-2006.

Experts say many lives could have been saved had there been a tsunami warning network in place before the Dec. 26 quake and tsunami, which left at least 280,000 people dead or missing in 11 countries.

More than 600 people may have died in Monday's quake, which didn't spawn a tsunami.