China offers another 4 million dollars for Myanmar cyclone relief

May 8, 2008, 11:11 GMT

Beijing - China has offered another 4.2 million dollars in emergency aid to cyclone-devastated Myanmar, the government said on Thursday.

An initial batch of relief materials valued at 500,000 dollars was handed over in Myanmar on Wednesday, foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters.

Qin said the Chinese government was 'highly concerned about the cyclone disaster in Myanmar.'

'We hope that with international support and help, Myanmar can overcome the difficulties brought by the disaster and reconstruct its homeland and economy,' he said.

But he said that assistance from the United Nations and the international community 'should follow the principles of equality and mutual respect.'

'We should also have patient communication with Myanmar,' Qin said when asked about China's position on possible UN relief missions in Myanmar.

'We hope Myanmar will cooperate with the international community and have consultation with the international community, and we hope Myanmar will overcome the difficulty,' he said.

Qin also said China had decided to give another 2 million dollars to the World Food Programme to ease a financial shortage caused by rising grain prices, in addition to the 2.5 million dollars promised earlier.

It was not clear if the new donation to WFP had any linkage to the crisis in Myanmar.