China officially opened its national website on disaster relief on Wednesday after a six month trial run.

The website www.jianzai.gov.cn, sponsored by the State Disaster Relief Commission, aims to release authoritative and timely information on natural disasters and spread disaster relief knowledge.

Natural calamities had caused the deaths of 2,373 people while 568 people remain missing. More than 13.2 million people sought emergency shelter and direct economic losses totaled 199 billion yuan (about US$ 25.51 billion) in China by the end of October this year.

The central government has allocated 4.9 billion yuan to subsidize victims of major natural disasters so far this year.

(Xinhua News Agency November 30, 2006)