Sri Lanka is grateful to China for its generous help in the aftermath of the fatal tsunami, the country's Finance Minister Sarath Amunugama said Tuesday.

"We are very happy with China's donations and contributions. Sri Lanka will fully recover with the help from the international community," he said told Xinhua.

He described China's assistance as timely and efficient.

Amunugama, who is in Geneva for an international donors' conference,said emergency relief has completed and that the aid efforts now have entered the phase of rehabilitation and reconstruction.

"Our current needs are focused on health and sanitation needs and social and environmental protection followed by rehabilitationof the affected communities and economic recovery," he added.

Amunugama urged the international community to provide more help and assured that all donations to Sri Lanka will be used efficiently.

He also thanked all donor nations for manifesting a unique sense of human solidarity in face of the tsunami.

The donors' conference, held under the auspices of the United Nations, drew more than 250 representatives from donor nations, tsunami-affected countries and international and regional organizations.

(Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2005)