YANGON, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar is setting up a Global Positioning System (GPS) in four cities to monitor earthquake and the system will be operational by the end of this year, according to the seismological department Wednesday.

    With the help of the Earth Observatory of Singapore, the project is being implemented in the four cities of Kyaikto, Wal, Bago and Taikgyi lying on the country's main live fault diagonally, the sources said.

    According to records, since 168 years ago up to the 1970s, there occurred some strong-intensity earthquake in Myanmar - Inwa Amarapura (8.0 on the Richter scale) in 1839, Tayat (7.5) in 1858, Bago (7.3) and Phyu (7.3) in 1930, Takaung (7.5) in 1946, Sagaing(6.5) in 1956 and Bagan (6.8) in 1975.

    In 2005, a year after Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami smashed across the Indian Ocean, Myanmar set up a national committee for natural disaster prevention and resettlement in a bid to strengthen its tsunami warning system although the country was not much affected by the then tsunami compared with other South and Southeast Asian nations.

    Meanwhile, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) was committed to helping Myanmar develop an early warning system for Tsunami and other natural disasters by setting up two seismograph stations and two sea-level measurement stations, according to the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology Department (MHD).

    Moreover, the Japan International Cooperation Agency has also been helping Myanmar establish an early earthquake warning system by setting up seismographic network and record center in the country, according to state media.