Addressing the issue during the first Cabinet meeting since assuming the premiership, Liu instructed authorities, including the Ministry of the Interior, the Department of Health and the Mainland Affairs Council, to work out a series of reconstruction and rehabilitation measures based on Taiwan’s experience in handling the aftermath of the Sept. 21, 1999 earthquake.

These measures, which will be coordinated by the National Disasters Prevention and Protection Commission, will cover shelter for victims, medical care and disease prevention, environmental disinfection, psychological counseling and guidance for victims.

They will also include donations of food and supplies, drinking water processing, prevention of landslides and mudslides, safety assessment of buildings, and monitoring of landslide lakes created by the temblor, Liu said.

The assistance will be extended to China through the channel established between the semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation and its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, he said.

The magnitude 8.0 earthquake hit Sichuan on May 12 and was the deadliest and strongest to hit China since the 1976 Tangshan earthquake that killed approximately 250,000 people according to government figures.

Confirmed fatalities from the Sichuan earthquake rose to more than 51,000 Thursday, with more than 29,000 others remaining missing and nearly 300,000 injured. The disaster also left 5 million people homeless.

Taiwan has been one of the biggest donor sources so far.

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