BEIJING, Oct. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met here Monday with envoys from three earthquake-hit South Asian countries to express China's sympathy and willingness to provide assistance.

    According to latest reports, the death toll has risen to 30,000 to 40,000 in Saturday's earthquake, measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale, which hit parts of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.

    Noting that Pakistan, India and Afghanistan are friendly neighbors of China, Wen said the disaster has touched the hearts of the Chinese people.

    China is willing to provide assistance within its own capacity for the disaster relief and reconstruction efforts in the three countries, though China is a developing country, Wen said.

    After the disaster happened, Chinese leaders have sent messages of condolence to the leaders of Pakistan and India and swiftly made the decision of offering 6.2 million US dollars worth of relief aid to Pakistan. A 49-member rescue team from China arrivedin Pakistan Sunday and started work right away as the fifth international rescue team following those from Britain, Turkey, Spain and the International Federation of Red Cross.

    China's Ministry of Defense also decided to offer 100,000 US dollars in cash in emergency humanitarian aid to Pakistan for the rescue operations and reconstruction efforts in the aftermath of the disaster, according to sources with the ministry.

    China sent its second batch of relief materials to earthquake-hit areas in Pakistan Monday afternoon, according to China's Ministry of Commerce. A total of 1 million US dollars in cash had already been remitted to Pakistan, and the more relief materials would be offered in the next two days.

    Prior to this, China has provided timely assistance to other countries and region when natural disasters happened. Hurricane Katrina hit the southern part of the United States on Aug. 29, causing heavy casualties and damages. China offered disaster relief up to 5 million US dollars along with emergency supplies tothe US people victimized by the hurricane.

    Last year a catastrophic tsunami swept over a number of nationsin South and Southeast Asia on Dec. 26, 2004. As of Sept. 22 this year, the Chinese government had offered 688 million yuan (about 85 million US dollars) to Tsunami-affected countries in addition to 610 million yuan from the public and private sectors.

    All these indicate that China is actively taking on more responsibility on international affairs, and that China is willingto work with the international community for common development, analysts said. Enditem