China said it has donated 130 million yuan (about 16.6 million U.S. dollars) to Lebanon and will continue to help the country in its reconstruction efforts, said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu in Beijing on Thursday.

Jiang told a regular press conference in Beijing that China will announce its donation at an international conference on aid for Lebanon held in Paris on Thursday.

Jiang said China views the conference as extremely important and that China's envoy to the Middle East issue Sun Bigan has arrived in Paris to attend the conference.

According to Jiang, China will increase by mid-February the number of its peacekeepers in Lebanon to 335 from the current 225. By then China's peacekeepers in Lebanon will comprise a engineering battalion of 275 members and a medical team of 60 members.

Source: Xinhua