MANILA - The Philippine government admitted Tuesday that chaotic urban planning exacerbated last month's floods that killed nearly 300 people in and around Manila.

"There have been lapses and omissions in the proper gear shifts in urban planning -- that we have to admit," President Arroyo's spokesman, Secretary Cerge Remonde, said in a statement.

The devastation created by the floods showed there was an urgent need to replan Metro Manila, a sprawling city of 12 million people where shantytowns and housing developments lie dangerously alongside rivers and lakes.

"We will have to plan anew based on very disturbing facts," Remonde said.

He highlighted insufficient drainage systems, as well as uncontrolled housing developments and the proliferation of informal settlers mostly on riverbanks, as major problems that needed to be addressed.

However, Remonde insisted the Arroyo administration should not take the blame for poor urban planning, saying the problem started more than three decades ago.

Tropical storm Ketsana (locally known as “Ondoy”) dumped a month's worth of rain over Manila within a few hours on September 26, killing 295 people and affecting nearly four million others, according to the government's latest figures.

The government has faced a fierce backlash over not preparing the city for such a deluge, and then not being capable of reacting to it adequately.

Remonde conceded the government's weather forecasting system, which has similarly been criticized for not warning residents of the incoming rain, had to be improved.

"We need as well to upgrade the facilities for effective and efficient weather forecasting," he said.

Ten days after the flooding, parts of Manila remain under water, mountains of garbage still lie on the streets and hundreds of thousands of people remain in makeshift evacuation centers.

Remonde on Tuesday called on the private sector and critics to roll up their sleeves and work with the government to get past the crisis.