The State Council passed a national program in principle for coping with public emergencies at an executive meeting held in Beijing on Wednesday.

The meeting, chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao, also gave in principle approval to a plan for ecological protection and construction in the Sanjiangyuan nature reserve in the northwestern province of Qinghai. The reserve is the source area of three major rivers: the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang.

On the public emergencies program, one meeting participant said, "It is an important guideline for regional governments and various departments to effectively handle public emergencies, safeguard the life and property of the people and reduce disaster-triggered losses."

The meeting noted that the program has to be tested and improved, and there is still a lot of work to do in formulating plans for grassroots units, forming a rapid-response rescue mechanism, improving management and skills of rescue operations and launching a disaster-relief awareness campaign.

According to the meeting, the plan for Sanjiangyuan aims to protect and rejuvenate its ecology, promote environmentally sound development and improve the lives of local citizens.

The meeting called the reserve, which covers 316,000 square kilometers of area, China's most important and influential environmental zone.

It called the implementation of the protection and construction plan of "strategic importance to boosting sustainable development of the whole country".
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(Xinhua News Agency January 27, 2005)