China is to pay more attention to the indoor environment of makeshift and newly-built houses in quake-hit areas in the southwest China's Sichuan Province and surrounding regions.

A special office for monitoring indoor environment in quake-hit areas was set up on Sunday in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, by the China Indoor Environment Monitoring Committee.

Song Guangsheng, the committee director, said the office was going to monitor the air in tents, makeshift and newly-built houses to ensure people's health.

The office would conduct treatment activities over substandard ones, conduct tests on building materials and organize experts from at home and abroad to solve indoor pollution problems during the reconstruction.

The death toll of the 8.0-magnitude earthquake on May 12 increased to69,136 as of Sunday noon.

(Xinhua News Agency June 9, 2008)