One of the project's chief architects, Conrad Lautenbacher, US Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere said the real-time picture generated system could one day safeguard against tsunamis, hurricanes and even the spread of bird flu.

"Wouldn't it be good to track bird flu - you can do that. Health is one of its components," Lautenbacher told Reuters in an interview.

"Diseases could be tracked and eventually mitigated against, so they could be stopped before they even start," he said on the fringes of the World Maritime and Technology conference in London.

The System-of-Systems, as it is known, draws on the technological assets of some 60 countries and 43 organisations and aims to collate information gathered by thousands of instruments worldwide. It could also be used to manage the world's dwindling resources more efficiently.

"Some thirty years ago when people first started writing about the need for such a system it looked like science fiction," he told Reuters.

"But there is a confluence of technology in the world today that wasn't there 30 years ago and there is a real need with 6 billion people in the world and growing to 9 billion to beat the Malthusian prophecies," he said.

"You have to move and use your brain - use our knowledge for the benefit of humankind," he said speaking about the need to pool and share data.

Recognising its importance, the G-8 group has made it one of its three top science projects and the European Commission and US administration have given it their backing.

Like an all seeing virtual eye the system works by streaming data from thousands of different instruments including buoys, seismometers, satellites and other devices that assess the state of the earth.

"Thirty years later you have supercomputers, you have fibre and satellite communication networks that are hugely robust. You have the technology to put into the sensors that sit at the bottom of the ocean."

Vice Admiral Lautenbacher, who is also administrator of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the need for such an observation system had never been greater.

He noted that between 1990 and 1999 natural disasters had killed 500,000 people and caused $750 billion in damage.

He said Allianz, Europe's largest insurer, might have to pay out up to $550 billion in compensation for the effects of hurricanes Rita and Katrina alone last year.

THE FUTURE

Lautenbacher said future efforts would concentrate on bringing more countries on board.

"To get collaborative agreements that will allow to invest in systems that work together and share the data to float everybody's boat."

He also envisaged industry and commerce playing a much greater role.

"Right now the organisation is a government one but everyone in it believes that this is much more than that - there is potential for commercial industry to be part of it," he said.