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study by the University of Louvain's School of Public Health in Brussels revealed here Monday that 90 percent of global natural disasters so far this year were caused by extreme weather, killing 7,000 people and causing US$19 billion in economic loss, with some $15 billion from natural disasters.

"From 245 disasters recorded in 2009, 224 were weather related, affecting 55 million people, 7,000 of those were killed," Debarati Guha-Sapir said, a professor at Louvain and director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED).

The study was jointly made by the WHO Belgium office, CRED, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Experts warned that temperature rise due to global warming would trigger more extreme weather, ranging from prolonged droughts to large floods, mainly occurring in Asia and Africa.

The study said about 11 million people were affected by floods this year, compared to 45 million people the previous year. The most severe flood was in 2007, affecting some 178 million people worldwide.

"This year's statistic shows a lower number of affected people, but combatting natural disasters remains top priority and will continue to affect more people since over half of the world's population are living in coastal regions, which are highly susceptible areas to natural disasters," Margareta Wahlstrom, the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction assistant secretary-general said.

The study also said Asia was more vulnerable to storms and floods, while Africa would be tortured by drought.

"Access to clean water is already a major threat to human security. The disasters can be caused by too little or too much water," Wahlstrom said.

The WMO said earlier that 2009 would be among the 10 warmest years on the planet's history due to global warming.

WMO secretary-general Michel Jarrud called the need for a deal at the climate talks to reduce disasters.

Despite earlier arrests by Danish police following Saturday's violent protests, hundreds of activists staged rallies, calling for negotiators to develop concrete solutions to combat climate change and asking developed nations to take the lead in cutting back on emissions.

The police detained about 1,000 protesters on Saturday but released most of them a day later. The protesters had demanded negotiators to agree on the binding treaty on climate change.