The Chinese government will further increase cooperation in disaster prevention and relief work with ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries and international organizations, said Chinese Vice-Premier Hui Liangyu Tuesday.

Hui made the remarks at the opening ceremony of the two-day China-ASEAN Workshop on Earthquake-Generated Tsunami Warning, which was hosted by the China Seismological Bureau.

Hui said the Chinese government and people have provided large-scale assistance to tsunami-hit regions around the Indian Ocean, and made positive contributions to those countries' disaster relief and reconstruction work.

"We should learn from the lessons of Indian Ocean's tsunami to do more research on natural disasters, to establish the early warning mechanism, to improve public awareness of disaster prevention and relief, and to increase international coordination and cooperation in fighting against natural disaster," Hui said.

China and the ASEAN countries, as friendly neighbors, have cooperated in such fields as politics, economy, culture and social issues, Hui said, adding that China is willing to cooperate with the ASEAN in taking precautions against earthquakes and tsunamis, so as to reduce potential losses.

Hui said in order to establish the global early warning mechanism for earthquake and tsunami, all countries in the world should strengthen programing and coordinating in this area.

China supports the United Nations to play the leading role in the process of establishing the mechanism, and the ASEAN should also play an important role in the region, he added.

Hui said China expects an early warning system will be set up in the Indian Ocean as soon as possible, and supports the ASEAN countries to improve their early warning abilities for earthquake and tsunami.

"China is ready to provide assistance in terms of technology and personnel training to establish the early warning network," Hui noted.

"We should take cooperation in earthquake and tsunami early warning as an opportunity and extend it to a wider range of collaboration relating to disaster prevention and relief," Hui said.

Approximately 30 experts and management officials from ASEAN, officials from the ASEAN Secretariat and experts from India, Sri Lanka, the United States, Japan and the United Nations participated in the workshop.

At the workshop, the participants exchanged views on improving the earthquake monitoring ability of southeast Asian countries and on establishing early warning system of the tsunami.

The proposal of such a workshop was set forth by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in his speech at the international tsunami summit held in Jakarta of Indonesia on Jan. 6.