The Chinese and Liberian governments on Thursday signed a protocol to have a team of medical doctors dispatched to Liberia to share their expertise with their Liberian counterparts and train local medical personnel.

Under the agreement, the team of nine specialized doctors would be posted at the largest referral hospital -- the JFK Medical Center in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia.

At the signing ceremony, Chinese Ambassador Lin Songtian said the bilateral agreement would run for two years and is renewable upon the request of the Liberian government.

The Chinese medical team, Lin said, consists of members in specialized areas ranging from internal medicine, general surgery, obstetrics and gynecology to ophthalmology and acupuncture as well as anesthesiology.

"I was deeply touched by the war-torn situation at the medical facilities I visited here," Ambassador Lin said, adding the suffering and the alarming shortage of medical facilities and medicine and medical personnel "compelled" him to recommend to his government health and medical care sector be put in top agenda of assistance to Liberia.

A three-man advanced team is expected to arrive in the West African country by the end of this month while the rest would come in by the end of October.

The health and almost every other sectors in the country were devastated during the 14 years of civil war which ended in August 2003.

Liberia's Health Minister Peter Coleman described the agreement as "the best assistance that can be given."

Source: Xinhua