In 2008, disasters ranging from the Chinese earthquake to a devastating cyclone in Myanmar wrought the second most devastating annual toll of the past decade, 242,662 deaths, according to a report by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

It cautioned that only piecemeal progress had been made on prevention, early warning and mitigation measures to cope with floods, drought, storms and earthquakes, despite the growing risk of extreme weather with global warming.

The annual "World Disasters Report" highlighted climate change as "offering us the ultimate early warning."

"The rising dangers of climate change require a response from governments equivalent to the one made to address the global financial crisis," said Bekele Geleta, the federation's secretary general.

But he warned in the report that there was "much resistance to change" and the focus was still on emergency aid after the event rather than preparing for the worst.

"This seems to be a lesson that individuals, donors, countries and some of the 'humanitarian community' have yet to learn," Geleta said.

The number of natural or man-made catastrophes in 2008, 585, was the lowest of the past decade.

The overwhelming majority of the deaths occurred in the Sichuan earthquake in China where 87,476 people died, and cyclone Nargis, which claimed 138,366 lives when it battered southwestern Myanmar.

Although not all the disasters were attributable to extreme weather, the Red Cross insisted that the trend of global-warming related events was rising.

The report likened the impact of global warming to rolling a dice: "We never know when a particular number will appear, but at some point every number comes up."

"Confronted with global warming and growing vulnerability, we also know the dice is loaded."

While losses and deaths had generally declined over the past three decades thanks to storms or tsunami alerts, or better forecasting, they were largely due to technological steps, the Red Cross said.

But Geleta said that those measures were often disconnected from ordinary people or communities, while emergency aid was still favoured.

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