NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The recent surge in destructive hurricanes is expected to continue this year, with forecasters predicting at least seven hurricanes to approach North America in 2000.

Forecasters attending this year's National Hurricane Conference on Wednesday also predicted 11 tropical storms -- one fewer than in 1999, when 12 formed and eight developed into hurricanes.

Storms must generate winds at least 74 mph before they are classified as hurricanes.

"Based on new long-range forecasts, we're entering a new era in increased hurricane activity," said Joe Myers, the conference chairman and the director of Florida's Division of Emergency management.

During the past five years, there have been more than 60 named storms in the Atlantic alone, 41 of them hurricanes.

Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center, presented a graph that indicated the late 1990s brought a frequency of major storms considerably higher than nearly all of the past century. Only a short period in the late1940s came close.

"After the last five years, it would be very, very foolish to expect were not going to have a high number of storms," said Mayfield.

The National Hurricane Conference brings together forecasters and emergency management officials from across the country to discuss advances in predicting the frequency, strength and path of hurricanes, as well as ways to minimize damage and loss of life.