British weekly magazine The Economist has praised the combination of the Chinese government and volunteer efforts in coping with the country's worst earthquake in three decades.

The article titled "China helps itself" in its latest edition on Saturday said that the government's relief effort is impressive and what ordinary people are doing is even more inspiring.

It said that the government has mobilized its own forces on a huge scale in response to the disaster on May 12 in the southwest China's Sichuan province.

More than 100,000 troops and police have been deployed to help survivors and to rescue people trapped by rubble and landslides.

Meanwhile, according to the report, the scale of non-governmental involvement has been striking.

A group of private catering companies from outside Sichuan Province have been providing hot steamed buns, meat and vegetables to survivors in Jiangyou, a small city 115 km east of the epicenter.

Thousands of volunteers headed to the disaster zone. Their cars, some bedecked with flags and slogans, ply the expressway from Chengdu and Jiangyou to ferry the injured to hospitals in the city.

Inside a stadium, stalls set up by volunteer groups offer the refugees services ranging from psychological counseling to the charging of mobile-telephone batteries.

In Beijing, thousands of people gathered in Tiananmen Square to observe three minutes of silence in response to an official call. They also spontaneously chanted slogans and punched their fists in the air, shouting "Come on China!."

The combination of government and volunteer efforts has yielded good results, the report said.

In refugee camps on the periphery of the disaster zone, tent areas appear clean and orderly, with adequate supplies of food and clean water.

There have been no reports of serious outbreaks of disease and most refugees seem in reasonable spirits, the report said.

(Xinhua news Agency May 26, 2008)