UNITED NATIONS - As the UN on Monday pursued the world's top killer - non-communicable diseases (NCDs) - a leading doctor from the World Health Organization (WHO) called for preventative measures on such chronic diseases to be placed higher on the international agenda.

"It's not a choice of dealing with it or not, it's an absolute fundamental imperative for development," said Dr. Douglas Bettcher, WHO's director for the Tobacco Free Initiative, told Xinhua in a recent telephone interview.

With NCDs already claiming 36 million lives a year - nearly 100,000 people a day - the UN Geneva-based health agency, WHO warns that deaths from chronic diseases will continue to climb even faster, amounting to 52 million deaths by 2030.

As world leaders on Monday kicked off a two-day high-level meeting to enact a roadmap to attack diseases like cancer, diabetes, heart and lung diseases, it is hoped that the summit on NCDs, which is being called a "once in a generation opportunity," moves to become a "worldwide priority," Bettcher said.

Marking the second time in its history that the United Nations General Assembly has ever put a global disease on the table, health experts and world leaders from 193 nations met to avert what the UN has declared a "public health emergency in slow motion. "

"It's a make it or break it time for moving forward this very important agenda at this time of global financial crisis," said Bettcher.

Calling NCDs the top global killer "by a long shot," Bettcher attributed such rises in deaths partly to the aging of the world's population, rapid urbanization and increased exposure to risk factors, particularly in low-and middle-income countries.

"This is a landmark meeting," said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon at the opening of the unprecedented meeting. "Three out of every five people on earth die from the diseases that we gather here to address."

The last time the UN looked at a health issue under the global microscope on such a high-level was almost a decade ago.

It took up the fight against HIV/AIDS in a summit which was a game changer in the epidemic, transforming the face of prevention and treatment as it spurred an international flow of funding and commitments.

At the end of Tuesday, it is expected that an action-oriented outcome document will be adopted, molding the international agenda on the prevention of NCDs.

Among the sticking points, behind the scenes of negotiations, is a multi- sectoral approach by governments, civil society and the health industry, to formulate plans by 2013 to cut the risk factors behind NCDs.

"This will be a massive effort, but I am convinced we can succeed," Ban told the UN meeting, where more than 30 heads of state and government and about 100 other senior ministers and experts, gathered.

Essential access to NCD treatment and care in all countries, investments in stronger health systems and services in developing countries needs to also be scaled up, Bettcher said.

Largely preventable and widely known as "lifestyle-related diseases," factors like poor diet and easily available processed foods, tobacco and alcohol use, and lack of physical activity, have driven heart disease, cancer, lung disease and diabetes up the charts.

The UN also points out that 2.8 million cancer cases worldwide can be prevented with a healthy lifestyle.

Last week, WHO released a report last week singling out cancer as the sole killer of 7.6 million people every year - more than the combined deaths of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

Feeling the brunt of the waves from the NCDs: low-and middle- income countries who are disproportionately affected. Eighty percent of all NCDs occur in low-and middle-income countries whose health systems are drained.

Indefinite hurdles exist for those countries as preventative health care measures are lacking, such as early diagnosis.

Tying the global economic issues related to NCDs is critical to achieve stability, Bettcher said. But scaling up treatment and financing options in a cloudy environment has been a challenge in the patchy climate of money and commitments, particularly with the specific sights of NCDs.

The heavy price-tag of the chronic diseases is expected to cost the international community a staggering $47 trillion in the coming 20 years, said a study released on Sunday by Swiss- based World Economic Forum (WEF) and Harvard School of Public Health.

Representing a total loss of 4 percent in the annual global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the coming two decades, the study also recognized the toll on families and economies, pinpointing that the majority of lost people are in their "most productive years."

It warned that the impact of NCDs has the ability to "put a brake on the global economy."

In another report released ahead of the UN meeting, WHO said that developing countries can prevent millions of new cases of NCDs, while implementing a set of measures for treatment for as little as $1.20 a day, per person per year.

It offered a slew of low-cost recommendations that target entire populations, including excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol, public health awareness programs about healthier diets, and legislation to reduce high levels of salt and trans fats in foods.

But the big test also comes after Tuesday, once the action- oriented plan is put into force, and if global promises are matched by actual results on the ground, the UN secretary-general warned.

"If this document remains just a set of words, we will have failed in our obligations towards future generations." he said.