More foreign leaders have sent messages to President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, offering their deep sympathies over the recent weather disaster in China.

 

The foreign leaders who have sent messages recently included Polish President Lech Kaczynski, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyoo, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, Spanish Prime Minister Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Mauritian Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam.

 

In their messages, the leaders extended deep sympathies to the affected regions, voiced support for the Chinese government's disaster relief efforts and expressed the belief that the Chinese people will overcome the current difficulties so that normalcy will return to the disaster-hit areas at an early date and economic growth will continue.

 

Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Maria Isabel Salvado, Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski and Cypriot Foreign Minister EratoKozakou Marcoullis also sent messages.

 

Prolonged low temperatures, icy rain and heavy snow have been raging in the southern part of China in the past month.

 

A total of 21 provincial-level areas have been affected, with Hunan, Guizhou, Jiangxi, Anhui, Hubei, Zhejiang, Sichuan and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region being the worst hit by the severe weather.

 

(Xinhua News Agency February 14, 2008)