JAKARTA, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Anyer, West Java, on Thursday pledged to speed up of the installation of a tsunami early warning system mindful of the recent tsunami in Java's southern coastal regions.

    "Development of the system is complicated and costs much. It also takes a process. Initially it was to be completed by 2009 but now we will speed it up to finish it in the middle of 2008," he was quoted by official news agency Antara as saying.

    He made the statement after listening to presentations by Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Poernomo Yusgiantoro and Transportation Minister Hatta Radjasa on the country's geographic and geological conditions and the earthquake information system of the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency.

    The president would ask the coordinating minister for people's welfare and the finance minister to discuss the allocation of funds for the project with the House of Representatives.

    He said he would also seek the fulfillment of aid commitments by certain countries and international donors at the Tsunami Summit in 2005.

    "We will also seek foreign assistance to speed up the project," he said.

    Meanwhile, Susilo asked local administration leaders to start making a fixed procedure of disaster information dissemination and organizing disaster management exercises.

    "I have also asked regional administration leaders to set up a command posts that will operate 24 hours to disseminate information on earthquake and tsunami," he said.

    He said the posts could be located at governors-residiences so that in case a tsunami or an earthquake happened they could immediately get information about it and distribute it to the public or parties concerned.

    He emphasized the importance of setting up a communication system for the public for spreading information about tsunami or an earthquake from the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency.

    "There is a 20-minute time which is very precious for spreading earthquake or tsunami information from the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency to save people's lives," he said.

    At least 547 people died, 323 are still missing and 465 were injured during the tsunami disaster, triggered by a magnitude-6.8 quake hitting southern coastal areas of Indonesia's West Java, Central Java and Yogyakarta provinces on Monday.

    Indonesia lies in a zone known as the Pacific "Ring of Fire," which is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity. Enditem