QUITO, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Scientists and officials from 30 nations are attending the 22nd conference on tsunamis in the Ecuadorian coastal city of Guayaquil, Ecuador's Oceanography Institute (INOCAR) said Monday.

Topping the conference's agenda are reports from the Inter-Governmental Oceanographic Commission, the UN Education Science and Culture Organization and the International Tsunami Center.

"The conference will review the goals and recommendations presented at the 21st conference in 2005 and will release reports on the world's recent tsunamis," said the INOCAR.

"The experts discussed early detection of tsunamis including the real-time monitoring of the sources of earthquakes and the potential evaluation of such phenomena," said INOCAR's Director Captain Mario Proano.

"Recent calculations show that a tsunami near the coast can last 13 minutes after it begins. It is the minimum time we have for evacuation," Proano said, adding that such waves can travel at 1, 500 km per hour.

He said coasts around the Pacific Ocean are among the most vulnerable regions in the world, citing the nearly 8-magnitude earthquake in Peru on Aug. 15, which killed at least 500 people and left more than 200,000 homeless.

The Pacific tsunami alert center, based in the U.S. state of Hawaii, was the first such body set up in 1965. It now supports 26 nations.