Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu, also deputy head of the State Council's earthquake relief headquarters, stressed that relief and rehabilitation will follow expertise, while urging experts to work out more practical proposals.

China has set up a special expert team for the devastating May 12 earthquake and their work has helped the relief headquarters to know more about the quake and its effects as well as contributed a lot to relief work, Hui said at a meeting with the team members on Thursday.

"The relief work remains tough," he said, asking local governments and relevant departments to listen to experts' opinions.

Expertise is greatly needed about how to ease the treat posted by quake lakes, formed by the landslides that blocked the rivers, to prevent secondary disasters, to evaluate quake effects, to arrange displaced people and carry out rehabilitation, he said.

He also hoped the expert team to bring out more detailed and practical proposals.

(Xinhua News Agency May 31, 2008)