China has donated almost US$13.5 million worth of food and services to the World Food Program (WFP) since 2000. The bulk of the funding has gone to Africa, the Beijing office of the WFP reported on Wednesday.

"The WFP hopes to increase cooperation with China regarding its ability to provide emergency assistance to needy countries and to utilize China's experience and technologies in disaster relief, mine clearance, and transportation of relief materials," said John Powell, WFP deputy executive director, at a seminar co-organized by the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the WFP.

The WFP will send a delegation to China at the end of July. They would like to invite more Chinese suppliers to bid for WFP programs for procuring grains, commodities and services.

At the end of 2005 China ended its 26-year history as a WFP food recipient and then went onto become the agency's third largest donor after the United States and European Union in the same year. In 2006 China donated about US$30 million worth of food and services to the WFP.

Established in 1963, the WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency. It has spent US$30 billion to date and offers more than 47 million metric tons of food to 90 million people annually on average.

(Xinhua News Agency July 19, 2007)