Health officials from China and countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Thursday proposed to set up a regional disease monitoring network for post-disaster epidemic prevention.

"The earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean demonstrated once again that natural disasters are common threats to all human beings. To defend ourselves from such catastrophes, we should havean effective cooperative mechanism for epidemic prevention," Wang Longde, China's vice health minister, said at a two-day China-ASEAN symposium on post-disaster epidemic prevention.

To support the initiative, Wang said China would share its experiences in disaster relief and disease control and provide technical support in fast testing, water quality monitoring, emergent immunization and personnel training.

Since the SARS outbreak in early 2003, China has been very active in international health cooperation. In a letter to the symposium, Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi said that China would continue to engage in international exchange and cooperation in the area of public health to improve regional capacity of disaster response and epidemic prevention.

Wu also promised that the Chinese government will continue to help the tsunami-hit countries for rehabilitation and reconstruction.

The earthquake and tsunami occurred on Dec. 26 in Indian Ocean caused serious damages and loss in South and South-East Asian countries, taking nearly 300,000 lives. The World Health Organization had worried that large outbreak of infectious diseases in the disaster-affected regions might bring about more victims.

Bounpheng Philavong, senior officer of ASEAN's Bureau for Resources Development, said as a country frequently hit by natural disasters, China is experienced in disaster response and post-disaster epidemic control.

"During the SARS outbreak, China showed it had the capacity to contain a very dangerous outbreak. We sincerely hope that China will be a very good partner in the prevention of disease outbreaks in the future," he said.