At the UN-sponsored conference of international donors that convened in Geneva on Tuesday, China's special representative Shen Guofang, also assistant foreign minister, reaffirmed the Chinese government's pledge of US$20 million for multilateral relief and reconstruction efforts within the UN framework.

Shen pointed out that China launched its disaster relief operation -- the largest in its history -- immediately after the December 26 tsunami disaster. He stressed that China is a developing country and not wealthy, but that "Our assistance is sincere and selfless, with no strings attached. This has been the abiding principle of our foreign aid over the years."

Premier Wen Jiabao earlier promised that by the end of this month, more than half of the pledged cash and material assistance would have been put in place.

About 250 representatives of governments, aid agencies and tsunami-hit countries attended the conference, which was chaired by UN emergency relief coordinator, Jan Egeland. During the meeting, donors committed a total of US$717 million for immediate use.

Shen told Xinhua News Agency that the Chinese government is also willing to provide assistance in both hardware and software to build an early warning system in the tsunami-affected region. He said that about 25 other countries have expressed willingness to join in China's proposal for such a system.

He noted that China has access to useful data from meteorological satellites and that the country's past experience with earthquakes and flooding has helped it to acquire expertise in dealing with disasters.

Over US$8 billion has been promised worldwide so far for the tsunami relief and recovery effort. The catastrophe claimed at least 156,000 lives in 11 countries and devastated entire communities.

(Xinhua News Agency, China.org.cn January 12, 2005)