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BEIJING - China said Thursday it will allow emergency rescue teams from Japan to aid earthquake relief efforts, the first country from which it has accepted such help.
The announcement by the foreign ministry comes four days after the deadly quake struck and follows reports by foreign rescue teams that China had earlier turned them away as time was running out for many victims.
"China's government has agreed with Japan on the sending of special rescue personnel to the Sichuan earthquake disaster zone to aid relief efforts," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement posted on the ministry's website.
Japan had about 60 people including sniffer dogs on standby, ready to head to China, a foreign ministry official said in Tokyo.
"We have just been informed of the agreement and started preparing for the emergency rescue," the official said.
He said that the team could arrive in China within the day.
The announcement comes a week after Chinese President Hu Jintao paid a landmark visit to Japan meant to repair ties between the Asian powers, which have been scarred for decades by Japan's brutal wartime invasion of China.
China has also accepted volunteers and relief goods from Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of China, but they are from a non-governmental Buddhist group.
Some 30 Taiwanese volunteers, including doctors, flew to southwest China on Thursday. Two charter cargo planes provided by Air Macau and Taiwan's China Airlines were also scheduled to leave for worst-hit Sichuan province.
Australia and South Korea have said that China has declined offers of help after Monday's earthquake, which left nearly 15,000 people dead and more than 40,000 others missing or buried under rubble.
China on Thursday stepped up the race to rescue survivors, with Premier Wen Jiabao ordering another 30,000 troops and 90 helicopters to the disaster zone and the military planning large-scale air drops of key supplies.
Another Japanese foreign ministry official warned on Wednesday that time was running out, saying that the likelihood of finding survivors decreased sharply after three days.
China had initially said that it could not accept the rescuers due to poor transport conditions, the official said.
Katsuyuki Kajiwara, one of the Japanese rescuers, earlier told public broadcaster NHK that the team was waiting for orders to deploy.
"I saw television footage showing a schoolchild being rescued out of rubble. I wanted to take part in the rescue if possible," he said.
Japan has said it would donate 500 million yen (4.8 million dollars) in relief supplies and cash.
Japan and China, which are major trading partners despite an uneasy history, have been working since 2006 to ease political tensions.
Relations slid to rock-bottom during the 2001-2006 tenure of Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, who paid annual visits to a shrine to war dead which critics associate with Tokyo's past aggression. - AFP/ir
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