Malaysian defence min says SE Asia needs aid centre

SINGAPORE, June 4 (Reuters) Malaysia's defence minister today said Southeast Asia should set up a regional humanitarian relief centre to ensure efficient delivery of aid to the victims of natural disasters such as the Javanese earthquake.

''The end objective is that we need to respond not just immediately, but also effectively,'' Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak told a security conference in Singapore.

''We collect money and items, but whether we can deliver the items expeditiously to the people who need it, that is in question,'' said Najib, who is also defence minister.

Najib's proposal comes a week after a magnitude-6.3 quake struck just off the coast of Java island, Indonesia, near the ancient royal city of Yogyakarta, killing more than 6,200 people and affecting more than 200,000.

Najib told Reuters that the new centre would not be a bureaucracy but a coordinating agency to improve the logistics of delivering aid to the disaster scene. The base for the centre has not be decided yet, he said.

The relief centre, staffed by both civilians and military officials, could include members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as well as countries such as the United States, Japan and Australia which had ''responded very positively during the recent tsunami'', Najib said.

On December 26, 2004, a magnitude 9.15 earthquake the most powerful in four decades triggered a tsunami that left up to 232,200 people dead or missing in a dozen Indian Ocean nations, including nearly 170,000 in Indonesia's Aceh province.

While the tsunami triggered the largest ever outpouring of disaster aid, raising 13 billion dollars from governments, multilateral institutions and millions of people worldwide, the United Nations has warned that corruption and inadequate monitoring in various countries meant that funds may not be used efficiently.

Last Friday, the United Nations said it had launched a 3 million plan to provide emergency shelter, medical assistance, clean water and sanitation to survivors of the Javanese quake.

REUTERS SY RN1204