"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.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet