Experts have dispelled beliefs that the world will end in 2012 based on the Mayan calendar.

Although the Mayan calendar marks the end of a 5,126 year old cycle around December 12, 2012, which brings the return of Mayan god Bolon Yokte who is associated with war and creation, experts say it merely marks the termination of one period of creation and the beginning of another.

"We have to be clear about this. There is no prophecy for 2012," said Erik Velasquez, an etchings specialist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

In a statement, the National Institute of Anthropological History in Mexico has also tried to quell the barrage of forecasters predicting the apocalypse. "The West's messianic thinking has distorted the world view of ancient civilizations like the Mayans," the institute said.

The institute added that only two of the almost 15,000 registered glyphic texts found in different parts of what was then the Mayan empire mentioned 2012.

In the Mayan calendar, the count begins in 3,114 BC and is divided into roughly 394-year periods called Baktuns. Mayans held the number 13 sacred and the 13th Baktun ends next year.

According to Sven Gronemeyer, a researcher of Mayan codes from La Trobe University in Australia who has been trying to decode the calendar, the so-called end day reflects a transition from one era to the next in which Bolon Yokte returns.

"Because Bolon Yokte was already present at the day of creation ... it just seemed natural for the Mayan that Bolon Yokte will again be present," he said.

"The Maya did not think about humanity, global warming or predict the poles would fuse together," said Alfonso Ladena, a professor from the Complutense University of Madrid. "We project our worries on them."