Ten Mediterranean nations with military links in the 5+5 Defence group of countries have agreed to carry out a joint exercise simulating a major catastrophe, the Algerian APS news agency reported.

The simulation was proposed during a two-day seminar gathering senior officers from France, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain, north of the Mediterranean, with their peers from Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia from the south.

The talks covered earthquakes, floods and catastrophes of a chemical nature and the defence exercises will be a test of cooperation between the military and the health services concerned, APS said, without giving any date for the exercise.

The "Catastrophe Management" operation will feature manoeuvres on the ground with intervention by health teams. The ten nations have also agreed that an expert panel will be brought in to standardise terminology used in the different countries and to create a data base.

The central director of health services in the Algerian ministry of defence, General Abdelkader Ben Djelloul, hoped the meeting "will open new perspectives for lasting, intense and fruitful cooperation between the two shores of the Mediterranean in the matter of managing major catastrophes."