Taipei offers aid, awaits the go-ahead from Beijing

HELPING HANDSaying foreign aid had been the key to recovering from the 1999 earthquake, President Chen Shui-bian pledged Taiwan's support for relief efforts

By Mo Yan-chih,Ko Shu-ling and Shih Hsiu-Chuan / STAFF REPORTERS, WITH DPA

Premier-designate Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄 said the new administration would spare no effort to provide medical assistance and necessary goods to China.

Taipei City Fire Department Commissioner Hsiung Kuang-hua (熊光華 said that the Taipei City Urban Search and Rescue Team had been in contact with the Red Cross Society and would be able to send 60 members to assist with the rescue work in Sichuan Province as soon as China granted permission to international rescue teams to enter the area.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JENNY W. HSU