By 2:00 PM Tuesday, the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) had received public donations worth more than 60 million yuan (8.57 million US dollars) to help victims in the earthquake-hit areas in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

The RCSC earlier called for donations to quake-stricken areas.

The commodities in urgent need such as tents, cotton-padded quilts, food, drinking water are not so easily be transported to the disaster-hit areas due to transportation difficulties, according to the RCSC.

Donations in cash is preferred at this stage, said an official with the RCSC.

China Charity Federation announced Tuesday to forward 400 tents and one million yuan (143,000 US dollars) to quake-hit Sichuan region.

The federation also initiated calls for public donations to the area.

Among others, the China Welfare Lottery Management Center has donated 5 million yuan to the Wenchuan County, and the China Disabled Persons' Federation and China Welfare Fund for the Handicapped have jointly donated 3 million yuan to Sichuan.

The 7.8-magnitude quake, occurred in Wenchuan Monday afternoon, has killed 9,219 people in the affected provinces of Sichuan, Gansu, Shaanxi, Yunnan, Shanxi, Guizhou and Hubei, and Chongqing municipality, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said in a release issued at 7:00 AM Tuesday.

(Xinhua News Agency May 13, 2008)