A total of 1,000 primary and middle-school students from China's quake-hit areas will recuperate in Russia from July 17 to August 5, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said on Tuesday.

This is the first group of students invited by Russia, and 570 more will go to Russia and recover there next year, Liu said. The majority of students came from the worst-hit Sichuan Province in southwest China.

The students would stay in Russia's Vladivostok City, Tuapse City, Omsk region, Novosibirsk region, Kemerovo region, and Krasnoyarsk territory, according to Liu.

The invitation of Chinese students to Russia was made by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who visited China only ten days after the May 12 earthquake.

It was an important consensus reached by the heads of state of the two countries and embodied the profound friendship of the Russian people toward the Chinese people, Liu said.

Liu believed this move would help deepen mutual understanding between the two peoples, push forward China-Russia friendship, and lay a sound foundation for the long-term, healthy and stable growth of bilateral relations.

(Xinhua News Agency July 16, 2008)