"The four-day meeting in Singapore... will examine ways to cut down on the number of deaths and injuries from disasters and disease in Asia Pacific and the Middle East, while harnessing the power of communities to become more resilient and better prepared for the next time disaster strikes," the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said in a statement.

The meeting of the organisation's societies from the region and the Middle East will also set the Red Cross-Red Crescent humanitarian agenda for the next four years, it said.

Winston Choo, chairman of the Singapore Red Cross, said the gathering allows societies in the region to learn from experiences in responding to disasters "and put forward a regional strategy" to protect vulnerable citizens and improve their lives.

"This year alone, 15 Asian nations faced severe flooding, landslides and typhoons," Choo said.

Among the topics under discussion will be the humanitarian repercussions of this year's war between Israel and the Hezbollah Shia militia in Lebanon, stopping the spread of infectious diseases, and assistance for vulnerable people in North Korea, the Federation statement said.

"Since 1995, Asia has consistently ranked as the continent most frequently hit by natural catastrophes, accounting for 60 percent of the world's disasters and 78 percent of global disaster-related deaths," it said.

In December 2004, more than 220,000 people died when a tsunami struck Indonesia and other nations around the Indian Ocean, in one of the deadliest natural disasters ever.

Another 74,000 people died and 3.5 million were left homeless from a massive South Asian earthquake in October 2005.

Early this year, an estimated 1,400 people were feared dead when a landslide unleashed a sea of mud that buried a farming village on the Philippines island of Leyte.