When a heavy earthquake hit Zhangjiakou, a city in north China's Hebei Province, in 1998, the country's first batch of relief supplies took two to three days to arrive.

Now it will take about eight hours, said Zhang Jianxin, an official with the Hebei provincial government at a meeting held here.

The province has set up 12 reserves with provisions for disaster relief in the past three years after putting forward a provincial plan for emergency and disaster relief.

Yang Yanyin, vice minister of civil affairs, told the meeting that all provinces in China are encouraged to set up similar reserves and store enough supplies to be prepared to act fast in a disaster.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs has established eight national supply reserves in north China's Tianjin Municipality and Zhengzhou, northeast China's Shenyang, central China's Wuhan and Changsha, northwest China's Xi'an, southwest China's Chengdu and south China's Guangzhou.

The reserves run by local civil affairs administrations are to gather provisions such as clothes and tents. Medicine and food will be provided by the administrations of public health and food.

The ministry pledged to provide relief for victims in disaster-struck areas within 24 hours.

A national scheme for disaster relief will also be put forward this year, the ministry added.

(Xinhua News Agency February 20, 2003)