A 180-member transport team of Chinese peacekeeping troops left Beijing Thursday aboard UN planes for a peacekeeping mission to Liberia in western Africa.  

This is the second batch of the transport company China has sent to Liberia. The first group of 60 troops arrived in the country on Dec. 10, 2003.

According to sources with China's Defense Ministry, at the request of the United Nations, the Chinese government will send 550 peacekeeping troops to Liberia, including a 240-member transport company, a 275-member engineering team and 35 medical staff for a UN hospital.

As the only professional transport team, the transport company sent by China is responsible for transporting materials, food and people for all peacekeeping troops in Liberia. The mission is scheduled to last one year, but it may be prolonged if the situation calls for it.

Before their departure, all the 180 members had been trained in skills such as using small arms, driving, speaking foreign languages, preventing illness, surviving in field operations, manipulating and maintaining special equipment, said the defense ministry.

On Wednesday, 179 vehicles and other equipment for the transport company had arrived in Liberia -- the first time that a large number of China-made sophisticated transportation equipment were sent abroad for peacekeeping efforts.

The Defense Ministry said the vehicles are of superb quality and equipped to cope with the sultry weather and road conditions in Africa. Besides, vehicles for water-purifying, bathing, cooking and refrigeration have also been equipped for the team's daily life.

Since China applied to the United Nations to offer peacekeeping troops in 1988, the country has sent over 2,000 peacekeepers on 11 UN peacekeeping missions.

(Xinhua News Agency March 19, 2004)