Chinese insurers had paid 1.66 billion yuan (US$243 million) in claims from areas affected by last year's May 12 earthquake as of May 10 this year, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) said in a statement on Tuesday.

Insurers had settled 231,000 claims involving 12,900 deaths, 743 people who became disabled and 3,343 who needed medical treatment, among the 239,000 claims the industry had accepted.

The unsettled claims mainly involved project insurance where there were long rebuilding periods and losses that still had to be assessed, as well as cases of life insurance where no body had been found, it said.

Insurance for village and student housing had been given priority. As of May 10, 182 million yuan had been paid for 288,000 units of rural housing.

Chinese insurers acted promptly after the devastating quake by sending emergency teams to serve policyholders, the CIRC said.

Insurers had also been involved in rebuilding. Under CIRC guidelines, some insurers had invested 10 trillion yuan in the rebuilding work in the quake zone in cooperation with other companies.

Insurers had also offered policies for construction, transportation and accident insurance for staff involved in the post-quake reconstruction.

The magnitude-8.0 quake that hit Sichuan and other parts of southwest China last year killed more than 69,000 people. It also left nearly 18,000 missing, more than 374,000 injured and millions homeless.

(Xinhua News Agency May 12, 2009)