Chinese mountaineers who brought the Olympic flame to the top of Mt. Qomolangma said here on Thursday that they are willing to become earthquake relief workers.

Chinese mountaineering team coach Wang Yongfeng, back to Beijing in early morning with 10 other climbers, some of whom scaled the 8844.43-meter (29,035-foot) peak on May 8 to bring the flame atop

"I am happy to be back and part of me is still excited for having brought the torch to the top of the world, but at the same time I am heavyhearted, for people's suffering due to the terrible earthquake," said Wang, who was the second torchbearer in the Torch Relay Qomolangma Leg.

A 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Wenchuan County of Sichuan Monday afternoon. The tremors were felt in most parts of the county.

The death toll across the country has risen to 14,866, the latest government statistics show.

Among those, 14,463 were confirmed dead in Sichuan Province, 280 in Gansu Province, 106 in Shaanxi Province, 14 in Chongqing Municipality, two in Henan Province, one in Yunnan Province and one in Hubei Province.

"If needed, we would like to do everything we can to help, including going to the earthquake-hit area to work for the relief, " he said.

"We will work as hard and devoted as we were climbing Mt. Qomolangma in the torch relay," he added.

The central government allocated another 250 million yuan (US$35.7 million) in relief for quake-hit areas Wednesday, brining total disaster relief fund from the central budget to 1.11 billion yuan.

Meanwhile, public donations have reached 877 million yuan in both cash and goods, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

A total of 47,813 soldiers, armed police and paramilitary personnel have been dispatched for disaster relief work and another 30,000 personnel will be sent to join the rescue efforts, military sources said.

Having promised to take the Olympic flame to the world's highest peak in Beijing's bidding campaign, the Beijing organizers selected a team of 36 torch climbers, 19 of which were picked for the final assault on May 8.

The flame's first trip atop the mountain was live televised.

The Beijing Olympic torch relay is the longest and most ambitious ever planned, traveling 137,000 kilometers across five continents in 130 days.

(Xinhua News Agency May 18, 2008)