As of Tuesday noon, donations to China's quake-hit regions had reached 13.925 billion yuan (2.01 billion U.S. dollars) with 12.516 billion yuan in cash and 1.408 billion yuan in relief supplies, according to the Information Office of State Council.

Among the donations, 990 million yuan were donated through the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC), 603 million yuan through the China Charity Federation, 6.891 billion yuan by provinces and regions out of the disaster-stricken areas, 619 million yuan by foreign countries and 1.37 billion yuan by Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, statistics of the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) showed.

At present, donations are mainly being used for rescue work. After the rescue operation ends, donations will be used for reconstruction, MCA Vice Minister Jiang Li said.

The MCA, armed forces and RCSC had dispatched 278,462 tents, 783,984 cotton-padded quilts, 1,783,600 items of cotton-padded clothes and food and drinking water worth 218 million yuan to the disaster areas, the MCA statistics showed.

Jiang vowed timely delivery of these donations to needy people, adding that the government will effectively and transparently use these resources in the quake-stricken areas.

Besides the MCA, the Ministry of Finance and the National Audit Office (NAO) will jointly supervise the use of donations, she said.

Jiang noted that the NAO had pledged last week it would audit the use of cash and goods for quake disaster regions, to ensure resources were strictly managed and used in a proper and timely manner.

Pang Chenmin, deputy director in charge of disaster relief with the MCA, expressed appreciation for all donators on behalf of the ministry and victims in quake-hit regions at the press conference.

"I assure you we will efficiently and completely deliver your warm-hearted donations to the quake-stricken areas."

"We also welcome the public including the media to supervise the use of donations," he said

(Xinhua News Agency May 20, 2008)