A 180-member transport team of Chinese peacekeeping troops left here Thursday aboard UN planes for a peacekeeping mission in Liberia.

This is the second group from the transport company China has sent to the West African country. The first group of 60 troops arrived in the country on December 10, 2003.

According to sources with China’s Defense Ministry, at the request of the United Nations the Chinese government will send 550 peacekeeping troops to Liberia, including a 240-member transport company, a 275-member engineering team and 35 medical staff for a UN hospital.

As the only professional transport team, the Chinese unit is responsible for transporting materials, food and people for all peacekeeping troops in Liberia. The mission is scheduled to last one year, but it may be extended if the situation calls for it.

Before their departure, all 180 members had been trained in such skills as using small arms, driving, speaking foreign languages, preventing illness, surviving in field operations and manipulating and maintaining special equipment, said the defense ministry.

On Wednesday, 179 vehicles and other equipment for the transport company had arrived in Liberia. This is the first time that a large quantity of sophisticated Chinese-made transportation equipment has been sent abroad for peacekeeping efforts.

The defense ministry said the vehicles are of superb quality and equipped to cope with the sultry weather and often-poor road conditions in Africa. Vehicles have also been equipped with facilities for water purification, bathing, cooking and refrigeration for the troops.

Since China applied to the United Nations to offer peacekeeping troops in 1988, the country has sent over 2,000 peacekeepers on 11 UN missions.

(Xinhua News Agency March 19, 2004)