Japan will send an emergency relief team Thursday to China's quake-stricken areas, Foreign Ministry officials said.

The Japanese government is coordinating with relevant departments of the Chinese side over details of the relief operations, they said.

The first batch of the relief team, consisting of some 10 members, is scheduled to set off from Narita airport later Thursday.

China has accepted Japan's offer to send an emergency response team to the quake-stricken southwest area, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in Beijing on Thursday.

A 7.8-magnitude earthquake rocked southwest China's Sichuan Province on Monday afternoon. The death toll has risen to 14,866, latest government figures show.

(Xinhua News Agency May 15, 2008)