PORT LOUIS, Jan. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- The Tsunami in the Indian Ocean has brought a new urgency for the small island developing states, whose government officials are to convene in Mauritius on Monday for a high-level UN meeting, to concentrate on disaster preparedness and call for more international attention to their plea.

    According to United Nations information officer Francois Coutu,who's been organizing the International Meeting to Review the Implementation of the Program of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, about 20 heads of state or government are to participate in the meeting, among them the prime ministers of Barbados, the Cook Islands, presidents of Gambia, Lebanon, Marshal Islands, Micronesia and Nauru. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is also slated to attend.

    "The tsunami is a wake up call for the small islands," Coutu said to Xinhua on Saturday in Mauritius.

    He said the islands in the Indian Ocean especially, are "not aswell organized as those in the Pacific."

    The tsunami, triggered by a huge underwater earthquake west to Indonesia's Sumatra Island, has killed over 150,000 people in South and Southeast Asia, leaving a trail of devastation from Thailand to Somalia.

    Another UN official expressed the same opinion. Sekou Toure, UNEnvironment Program's Africa regional director, said last Thursdayin Kenya's Nairobi the tsunami showed the "small island states aremore vulnerable than we think," and the impact of the disaster is to be "thoroughly discussed in the Mauritius conference."

    "The tsunami demonstrated the de facto vulnerability of the small islands to natural disasters," Coutu said.

    He said he hoped the huge devastation could "speed up" the donor action to help the small islands.

    "The early warning system in the Indian Ocean is to be highlighted in the conference," Toure said, adding the need to manage resources like fresh water is also to be a focus of the meeting.

    The meeting was set to review an international action program signed in Barbados ten years ago, covering aspects from environmental protection, trade access and disease to terrorist threats. However, media speculations fear the tsunami disaster could swarm the planned agenda for the meeting and suck away all the funds intended for long-term development.

    "Apart from the humanitarian assistance, the small island need most is to rebuild, and recreate conditions for development," Coutu said, noting he wasn't worried about long-term agenda being neglected.

    "The small islands want to reinforce their capacity, and they don't want to depend on aid. They want to earn their own bread," Coutu said. Enditem