The President-elect of the Maldives wants to set aside funds to buy a new homeland as rising sea levels threaten to submerge the island archipelago.

Mohamed Nasheed says money would be invested in the fund from the profits of the country's tourist industry.

Most of the land mass of the Maldive Islands stand little more than a metre above sea level.

Environmentalists believe that if global warming continues unchecked they will eventually disappear under the waves of the Indian Ocean.

The President-elect said it already broached the idea of buying land with a number of countries and found them to be receptive.

Mr Nasheed said that Sri Lanka and India were possible sites because of their proximity and similar cultures.

But he also said that Australia was also being considered because of the amount of unoccupied land there.