The United States has provided Russia with some 587,000 US dollars worth of medicines and medical equipment for the victims of last week's hostage-taking in Beslan,Russia, a senior official said here Tuesday.

The aid included 65 pallets with medicines and supplies, bed linens, x-ray systems, blood and chemical analyzers, burn dressings and other equipment, the State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

"We've got another C-130 with additional emergency medical supplies that will go from Italy tomorrow. And we are assessing what more we can do," Boucher said.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage went to the Russian embassy Tuesday morning to sign the condolence book and to express their sympathy for the victims, the spokesman added.

A group of armed men seized a school in North Ossetia's Beslan region on September 1. The death toll rose to 338 on Tuesday from the terrorist attack on the school at Beslan in Russia's southern republic of North Ossetia.

Source: Xinhua