Chinese Ministry of Finance gave a further 200 million yuan (about 28.6 million U.S. dollars) on Thursday in an emergency move to help buy and ship medicine and medical equipment to quake-hit areas.

This brought the disaster relief fund from the central budget to 1.31 billion yuan after Monday's earthquake, ministry sources said Thursday.

The earthquake, 7.8 on the Richter scale, shook Wenchuan Countyin Sichuan Province and led to at least 14,866 deaths.

(Xinhua News Agency May 15, 2008)