The Chinese government flew a 49-member team of rescue workers, medical staff and seismological experts to Pakistan yesterday as a first batch of relief to its earthquake-hit neighbor, according to a China Seismological Bureau (CSB) official.

The team, headed by CSB Deputy Director Zhao Heping, took six search dogs, eight tons of search equipment and nine tons of relief materials.

It represents the first emergency humanitarian aid China has offered to Pakistan, and Foreign Ministry spokesperson Kong Quan announced yesterday that the government has committed US$6.2 million in aid to the effort.

President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing all sent messages to their Pakistani and Indian counterparts expressing their sympathy and condolences, according to Kong.

The Ministry of Commerce also said on its website yesterday that it has launched an emergency foreign aid mechanism, and is working with the Foreign Ministry and the military to organize relief efforts.

"The rescue team's job could be more than rescue," said Zhang Guomin, a CSB researcher. "The team is led by a CSB deputy director and it is very likely to discuss seismological cooperation with the Pakistani side."

Zhang said China is concerned that the quake took place not far from the boundary of the western Chinese autonomous regions of Xinjiang and Tibet.

The Chinese Embassy in Pakistan said the body of the one known Chinese victim, Huang Bingkun, 39, was brought yesterday afternoon to the Pakistani capital of Islamabad by a Pakistani army helicopter.

It is the fourth time China has sent a rescue team abroad since 2003. The first was sent following an earthquake in Algeria in May of that year, the second after the quake in Bam, Iran in December 2003, and the third after the Indian Ocean tsunami at the end of last year.

China formed the China International Rescue Team in April 2001, with 222 seismological, engineering and medical experts from the CSB and military.

(China Daily October 10, 2005)