But the deal sealed after five days of negotiations in Kobe, Japan used only general language to commit countries to action, leading activists to describe the conference as another talking shop with nothing to show for itself.

"We should be able to reduce by half the casualties the deaths caused by natural disasters in the coming decade, compared with the decade that has just ended," UN relief chief Jan Egeland told reporters at the close of the meet.

"It would mean hundreds of thousands of lives saved and it would also mean millions of livelihoods saved," he said.

But the goal of halving deaths did not appear in the documents of the 168-nation conference and Egeland said the United Nations still had to come up in the coming months with "measurable indicators" to chart progress in disaster reduction.

"It is my job to be impatient and ambitious," Egeland said, adding that the conference decisions "are not legally binding documents but carry a strong moral commitment".

The conference, timed to coincide with the 10th anniversary of a major earthquake in Kobe, saw participant registration double after the shock of last month's Asian tsunami disaster which killed some 220,000 people.

In the 10 years to December 2003, just under 610,000 people died in the nearly 3,600 natural disasters across the world, according to figures by conference organizers.

Talks wrapped up past midnight to finalize a declaration and action framework, with some sides pushing for specific deadlines on when early warning systems must be in place and buildings must be built safer, diplomats said.

"We are very happy that the framework of action emphasizes the importance of bringing disaster reduction into the mainstream" of priorities, said Thea Hilhorst, a Dutch professor speaking on behalf of NGOs here.

"But that's old knowledge and we've seen in the past 10 years that there are many barriers. And there is nothing in this framework that shows any ways to remove those barriers," she said.

The non-governmental activist group Tearfund accused the United States and other "big countries" of leading opposition and said Britain, The Netherlands and Sweden had supported more concrete measures.

The United States said it fully backed disaster-reduction methods but admitted pushing to limit references to climate change in light of Washington's rejection of the Kyoto protocol on global warming.

The final document, however, still calls on governments to consider "adaptation to climate change" in disaster policy.

Salvano Briceno, head of the UN disaster reduction group running the conference, said the general tone of the final documents was inevitable with so many views after the tsunami disaster.

He said the Kobe meet was organized in less than a year -- not the two to three years usually needed for such an event -- due to fatigue by governments over UN mega-conferences.

"A conference doesn't solve all the problems or provide all the solutions," Briceno said, adding however that UN agencies would have a new vigor in disaster reduction after the conference.

The adopted resolution, named for Hyogo Prefecture which includes Kobe, said: "It is vital to give high priority to disaster risk reduction in national policy, consistent with (governments') capacities and resources available to them."

"We believe it is critically important that the Hyogo Framework for Action be translated into concrete action at all levels," the declaration said.

The delegates reached a consensus on Thursday to put the United Nations in charge of building a tsunami alert system for the Indian Ocean, amid competing offers by donor and regional nations to share their technology.

The alert system for the Indian Ocean was pledged to be up and running in 12 to 18 months.

The framework for action called for the development of alert systems across the world that are "people-centered, in particular systems whose warnings are timely and understandable to those at risk".

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