Vice President Xi Jinping has urged local officials to help solve living difficulties for people who have suffered from a major earthquake.

Xi made the call during his inspection to northwestern Shaanxi Province, in which some counties were seriously affected by the deadly quake in neighboring Sichuan Province on May 12.

At Xujiaping village, Xi comforted villagers and encouraged them to resume production as early as possible. Among all 146 households of the village, 126 were affected by the quake and half of their houses were either damaged or flattened.

Xi urged local officials to offer whatever they could to help the people with rebuilding their homes.

The Vice President later came to a middle school, where he told the students and teachers the government had planned for the reconstruction of all quake-ravaged areas across the country.

He reminded local governments to carry out serious epidemic prevention, especially the safety of water and food after the disaster.

(Xinhua News Agency May 21, 2008)