LYON, France - Police officials from around the world will gather at the INTERPOL General Secretariat on Wednesday 5 January for a special meeting to discuss further co-ordination of the international police response for countries affected by the Asian earthquake and tsunami disaster.

The meeting will focus particularly on the massive task of Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) using the internationally accepted INTERPOL standards. Thailand, where victims from a very large number of countries were killed, has agreed that these standards should be used and will send the Deputy Commissioner General of the Royal Thai Police, Nopadol Supsomboon, to the meeting to provide a detailed briefing.

To date, 24 of INTERPOL's member countries have sent DVI teams to Thailand to assist in the identification effort involving thousands of victims. INTERPOL has sent its own Incident Response Team to set up an emergency logistics and communications centre for the DVI command structure in place in Phuket.

Last week's tsunami disaster represents the largest ever displacement of DVI teams by INTERPOL member countries, and the largest effort of this kind by INTERPOL's Command and Co-ordination Centre which has been working non-stop on this since it first issued alerts to police in INTERPOL member countries early on 26 December 2004.

INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble travelled to Phuket, Thailand, on 31 December 2004 to make a first hand assessment of the additional support needed for the DVI teams. He thanked Thailand's Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, and Police Commissioner, Kowit Watana, for their leadership in co-ordinating the international DVI effort on the ground.

'I also want to thank the DVI teams in place for their tireless efforts,' Mr. Noble said.

In Thailand, Mr. Noble promised to bring together police officials from all affected countries in order to ensure that DVI teams had the necessary personnel, equipment and resources.

To that end, the 5 January meeting in Lyon will discuss issues such as the collection and transmission by INTERPOL member countries of DNA samples of those reported missing; the importance of centralised storage and analysis of DNA, fingerprint and other identifying data; development of a single point of contact in concerned countries for sharing police information on the disaster; and the roles to be played by INTERPOL's General Secretariat and National Central Bureaus in providing logistical and communications support.

All of these issues will be discussed with one goal in mind - to ensure that the DVI teams and police are able to work under conditions that will assist the accurate and efficient identification and repatriation of the many victims of this tragedy.

The meeting in Lyon will be closed to the media but it is expected that a press release summarising decisions and outcomes will be issued.