Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao sent a message to Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov on Monday offering China's condolences over Saturday's mine blast that caused heavy casualties in Siberia.  

In his message, Wen expressed condolences over those killed in the explosion and extended sympathy to the injured and the families of the dead.

At least 44 miners were killed when a methane explosion tore through the Taizhina mine in the town of Osinniki in Russia's Kemerovo district early Saturday.

Three miners are still missing two days after the blast in the colliery, about 3,000 km east of Moscow in western Siberia's coal-rich Kuzbass area, and hopes of finding them alive are fast fading, Russian emergency authorities said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 13, 2004)