KOBE-The top U.N. official for disaster-reduction promotion is on a mission to change the way countries think about reconstruction. Specifically, he wants them to think about future risks when they rebuild, and he believes Japan can play a key role in that process.

Salvano Briceno is the director of the Inter-Agency Secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. His group organized the World Conference on Disaster Reduction that began Tuesday in Kobe.

Briceno told The Asahi Shimbun the conference will adopt an action plan Saturday on disaster-awareness programs. The plans to beef up the world's readiness will stretch across a decade.

Briceno said that Japan can contribute by sharing its experience with disasters. He welcomed a plan by Tokyo to set up a special center in Kobe later this year to provide expertise in combining disaster-reduction programs and reconstruction efforts.

``There are many measures that need to be improved, from education about risk reduction to land-use planning, and even setting up an early warning system,'' Briceno said.

One of the recurring problems in reconstruction is that countries often focus on recreating previous structures rather than reducing risk factors, he said.

``The key is not to just reconstruct and provide people a habitat they had before, but to do it in a way that reduces the risk rather than reproducing the vulnerability,'' Briceno said.

He said that Japan ``has a great deal to share,'' both in technology and capacity.

Briceno stressed that it was important that countries like Japan work closely with the United Nations instead of unilaterally.

``It is difficult for a rich country to work bilaterally with a poor country because the realities are different,'' Briceno said, adding that the United Nations would combine experts from various countries to share expertise.

Briceno said the special center Tokyo is planning to set up in May in Kobe could be considered a U.N. facility.

If recognized as a U.N. organ, the center would be the latest in a line of U.N. offices in Japan, including the Disaster Management Planning Office of the U.N. Center for Regional Development in Kobe. He said details would be discussed with Japanese officials after the conference.

The new center would basically disseminate information on disaster-reduction programs, particularly pertaining to earthquakes.(IHT/Asahi: January 19,2005)