scientists believe the world is on the verge of a change in climate patterns that could last 20 to 30 years. "If the trend is confirmed the change could have a major effect on Asia,' says Michel Deque, a climate modelling expert with the French weather service, Meteo France.

Scientists at the National Aeronautical and Space Administration's ( nasa) Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( jpl ) at Pasadena, California, studying new imagery from the us- French topex/ Poisedon satellite, believe the abnormally warm ocean temperatures in the entire western Pacific and Asiatic oceans, may be a part of a larger, longer-lasting climate pattern.

"In contrast with the more spectacular but shorter duration El Ni