Regional governments currently spend a combined 7.5 billion dollars a year on building and outfitting new warships, said Roger Mariott, the chairman of Imdex Asia, a regional maritime conference which opens in Singapore on Tuesday.

Mariott said the United States currently spends 11 billion dollars annually on warship construction and outfittings, while Europe spends nine billion dollars per year.

"The Asia Pacific area is poised to overtake the spending of any geographical region," Mariott said, adding India, China and South Korea were the major drivers of the growth.

The figures are only for new warships, and do not include spending on areas such as modernisation, retrofitting or naval helicopters.

Mariott said one major source of growth was that navies required bigger ships, such as frigates and offshore patrol vessels, to combat pirates and potential terrorists lurking in the region's waters.

"(Regional navies) have relied on policing these straits and seas with smaller crafts, but they need to go into deeper waters, and the South China Sea can be very hostile, so bigger ships are required," said Mariott.

Besides buying warships direct from major shipbuilders, Mariott said Asian nations were also starting to design their own weapons and operational systems.

"We are seeing now, a drive by major Asian countries, to develop their own design capabilities for the ships," he said.

"This, I believe, will be very much the future of the region, by offsetting technology transfer to benefit local industries."

The conference, from Tuesday to Sunday, will see more than 200 exhibitors from 23 countries displaying their latest maritime defence technologies and products, Imdex Asia said.

About 4,500 government officials and maritime authorities from 32 countries, including first-time attendees India and South Korea, will be present.

Major defence manufacturers involved in the exhibition include Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin from the United States, and Europe's Rolls-Royce and EADS.