"The outlook calls for a very active 2006 season, with 13-16 named storms, 8-10 hurricanes, and four to six major hurricanes," the National Weather Service said in a report released Monday.

"It is statistically within reason to assume that two to four hurricanes could affect the United States," said retired Vice Admiral Conrad Lautenbacher, the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"The very thought of another hurricane strike on the US especially the Gulf coast is a troubling but very real possibility," he said, presenting the report at the Miami headquarters of the National Hurricane Center (NHC.)

The report said the six-month Atlantic hurricane season, which starts on June 1, is unlikely to reach the records set last year, when there were 28 tropical storms, 15 of which strengthened into hurricanes. Seven of the hurricanes were considered "major," and four of those slammed into the US coast.

But Robert Latham, who heads the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, stressed that did not rule out a hurricane more devastating than Katrina, which killed over 1,500 people in New Orleans and along parts of the US Gulf Coast last year.

"As bad as Katrina was, it could be worse," he said.

Officials reiterated warnings that residents in threatened areas should get ready for the hurricanes.

"It takes just one hurricane over your house to make it a bad year," said Max Mayfield, who heads the NHC.

"The research meteorologists are telling us ... that we're in a very active period for major hurricanes that may last at least another 10 to 20 years," he said.

"That's not good news and the message is very clear: We need to be prepared," said Mayfield.

But a poll conducted at the end of April showed that millions of Americans in hurricane-prone areas are paying little heed to the threats posed by the powerful storms, according to a survey Monday.

Fifty-six percent of the people in areas at risk along the US Gulf and Atlantic coasts do not feel vulnerable to hurricanes, and 83 percent have not strengthened their homes to resist the dangerous storms, according to the Mason-Dixon survey conducted for the NHC.

Thirteen percent of respondents said they would not evacuate even if ordered to leave.

Officials urged residents to heed any evacuation orders, but stressed that those not at direct risk should hunker down rather than join what could be a massive exodus from populated coastal areas.

Last year, about 2.5 million people evacuated Houston as Hurricane Rita approached, causing miles of gridlock as motorists ran out of gas on the highways. The storm eventually moved further north and spared the Texan city.

According to the US Census Bureau, 34.6 million people -- about 12 percent of the US population -- live in areas most threatened by Atlantic hurricanes.

The figure dates from July 2005, just before hurricanes Katrina and Rita pummelled the area.

The number is a jump from 1950, when 10.2 million, or seven percent of the US population, lived in the same area, which stretches from North Carolina to Texas.

Florida, which added almost 15 million residents, was responsible for the bulk of the increase.

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