A Chinese expert on emergency medicine said in Beijing on Monday that China was urged to build a national emergency aid network for natural disasters to guide and coordinate various departments in rescue operations.

Peng Bibo, chief medical officer of the Chinese International Rescue Team (CIRT), has just finished rescuing tasks in Pakistan's quake-hit area last week.

He told Xinhua that China's health, earthquake, agriculture, fire fighting and water resources departments should be integrated into the network so as to cope with natural disasters. All these departments are closely connected when emergency occurred.

Peng said China was urged to build a headquarters coordinating all related departments. Such a headquarter should be given a higher administrative title to enable it to supervise others.

He said the current emergency response offices in both the central and local governments were on alert only when facing disasters. The temporary coordination in disasters by these offices proved to be unfruitful due to inefficient communication.

Peng also said it was highly important to teach the public how to conduct rescues by themselves. The public should be given more training courses on first aid.

(Xinhua News Agency October 25, 2005)