NEW YORK (Reuters) ? The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) voted yesterday to support a national catastrophe plan that would create a fund to handle disasters like Hurricane Katrina.

Katrina, which hit the Gulf Coast on August 9, is costing insurers at least $50 billion. It was followed by Hurricanes Rita and Wilma, which are expected to cost the industry more than $10 billion each.

NAIC commissioners led by Florida?s Kevin McCarty and California?s John Garamendi are supporting a superfund, created by the property and casualty industry from premium payments, that would provide advanced funding to compensate future victims.

?There are signs of good acceptance of this programme by state regulators,? said Edward Liddy, chairman of Allstate Corp., who supports the plan.

Liddy said at a Goldman Sachs investor conference here yesterday that funding in advance for disasters like hurricanes makes good sense.

But other chief executives, such as Jay Fishman of St. Paul Travelers Companies Inc., said they opposed the national catastrophe fund plan.

?It?s not the right answer,? Fishman said at the conference. ?The natural capacity to handle this exists in the private market. Problems come when the market isn?t allowed to trade freely.?