China plans to build an eight-satellite system for round-the-clock disaster monitoring by 2010, as part of its efforts to improve its disaster warning and relief network.

The country will launch three of the eight satellites in 2006 to cover the major part of its territory and update ground station facilities, said Zhou Ming, deputy director of the Disaster Relief Department under the Ministry of Civil Affairs on January 10.

The government expects that the satellite network will survey the country every six hours in 2007, he said.

China is working hard to make an efficient disaster warning and relief network, drawing a lesson from its neighboring countries that have just hit by deadly tsunamis, he said.

The country's 31 provincial administrations have finished disaster and emergency relief plans, and cities along the main rivers and in earthquake-vulnerable areas have also done so, he added.

Meanwhile, the country has set up state reserves of disaster relief materials in ten cities and 26 provincial ones to store clothes and 370,000 tents.

China has adopted a direct reporting system for epidemics from county hospitals to the Ministry of Health based on computer network nationwide after it was stricken by severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in 2003.

The Ministry of Health also established ten medical expert teams to support local administrations in dealing with emergency cases.

Source: Xinhua