The meeting also decided to buy equipment necessary to quickly respond to natural disasters like earthquake and tsunami and start the rescue operation right away in case of any to minimise the loss of life and property.

"The country will be a member of Honolulu and Hawaii-based disaster forecasting centres very soon for getting early warning of earthquake and other natural calamities," Minister for Food and Disaster Management Chowdhury Kamal Ibne Yusuf told the reporters after the meeting.

Experts on natural disaster told the meeting that the possibility of a tsunami hitting the country is not alarming because of the country's geographical location.

Still the government would buy all necessary equipment that the armed forces division has suggested for the country to get better equipped to deal with such natural disaster, the meeting decided.

State Minister for Energy AKM Mosharaf Hossain, Chief of Army Staff Hasan Moshud Choudhury, secretaries of different ministries, teachers of Dhaka University, Buet, and representatives from meteorological department and different other bodies attended the meeting held at the conference room of cabinet division.

Sources said the meeting also decided to set up a national institute on disaster management training under the armed forces division and update the national building code to save large structures from earthquake effects.

The old part of Dhaka city is most vulnerable to damage and casualty in case of any massive earthquake as there is hardly any open space left for its residents to stand and take shelter, the meeting observed.

The meeting stressed the need for raising awareness among the general people of preparation and ways to save lives during natural calamities. The experts observed that had there been necessary forecasting system, the December 26 tsunami could have been predicted well before it struck.

The experts told the meeting that though the country was not affected seriously by the recent tsunami, it should be on alert to any such disaster, particularly earthquakes.

Despite the faint possibility of a tsunami, the country should include it in its comprehensive disaster management programme, they said.

The representatives from meteorological department told the meeting that the project to set up four new observatories would be complete by June this year.