BANGKOK, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Thailand launched on Friday the first of 22 U.S.-made tsunami-detection buoys to be positioned around the Indian Ocean as part of a regional warning system against giant waves caused by earthquakes under the sea.

The satellite-linked deep-sea buoy, unveiled at a ceremony on the tsunami-hit island of Phuket, will float 1,000 km (620 miles) offshore, roughly midway between Thailand and Sri Lanka.

"This will give us the capability to provide one hour warning to most of the countries in the northern part of the basin," Curtis Barret of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

Washington donated the buoy, but Thailand will be responsible for its upkeep.

Under a similar arrangement, a second buoy will be installed in April 2007 off Sumatra in Indonesia, which bore the brunt of the Indian Ocean tsunami in Dec. 2004 which left more than 230,000 people dead or missing.

It will take nearly a week for the ship carrying the buoy to reach its final destination, although the system is expected to be operational almost immediately.

Besides the buoys, Thailand has erected around 90 tsunami warning towers along its Andaman Sea coast to try to reassure residents and the 13 million tourists who visit the country each year.

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