Thailand will have a preliminary earthquake warning system completed by the beginning of next month,Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra confirmed in Bangkok Saturday.

Making the announcement on his weekly radio address to the nation, Thaksin said that the warning system would use seismic monitoring data, and would be fully up and running by the end of the year once monitoring buoys were in place, reported the Thai News Agency.

He also stressed that while the government was fully prepared to bear the costs of investment in the system, it would also welcome cooperation from outside sources, especially where this would provide links with other seismic monitoring networks.

The early warning system was recently shown to the Danish prime minister who visited Thailand last week, when he led the relatives of Danish victims of the December tsunami to Phuket for a memorial event.

Today Thaksin expressed further gratitude to Denmark for its assistance in the tsunami relief operations, noting that Denmark had provided essential computer software and victim identification experts. Thailand has expressed its intention of investing 10 million US dollars in a regional seismic warning system, and Denmark has said that it will consider matching this sum.

Source: Xinhua