As of Tuesday, 124 orphans, elderly and handicapped people who lost their families during Sichuan's devastating earthquake have been identified, a vice minister of civil affairs said in Beijing on Tuesday.

Jiang Li told a press conference that the identification of such types of people was ongoing, as many were mingled among other quake victims.

The government will offer each person in these three categories 600 yuan (US$86) per month for basic living expenses over the next three months, she said.

Meanwhile, psychologists were being sent to the quake areas to help counsel them and efforts were proceeding to help them find relatives, where possible, she said.

Jiang said these people were being relocated to social welfare centers in other parts of Sichuan that were unaffected by the quake.

For those who were confirmed to be orphans, the government encouraged society to adopt them, she said, adding that her ministry was receiving hundreds of inquiries every day.

The death toll from the devastating earthquake in southwest China's Sichuan Province last week rose to 40,075 nationwide as of 6:00 PM Tuesday, while 247,645 people were injured, according to the Information Office of the State Council.

(Xinhua News Agency May 20, 2008)