Malaysia will send relief goods worth of US$1.5 million to earthquake-hit China, Malaysian Foreign Minister Rais Yatim said on Tuesday.

Malaysia is scheduled to use its C-130 military aircraft to send these goods, comprising of tents, medical supplies and equipment, to China on June 8, Rais Yatim said at its ministry in Putrajaya, the administrative center of the Malaysian federal government.

On May 16, the Malaysian government announced that it will donate US$1.5 million to help the victims of the earthquake which hit Sichuan Province in southwest China.

Officials from the Malaysian Foreign Ministry said that Malaysia will send its donation in goods which China needed for the ongoing disaster relief.

On Tuesday, Rais also handed over Malaysia's donation of 4.3 million ringgit (US$1.34 million) to the victims of snowstorm in China through Cheng Yonghua, China's ambassador in Malaysia,

The donation included US$1 million from the Malaysian government and the rest came from the contribution by the public which was collected by the Malaysian Information Ministry and Sin Chew Jit Poh and Yayasan Nanyang Press.

Early February this year, the Malaysian government announced that it decided to donate 1 million U.S. dollars to help the victims of snowstorm in southwest China.

Rais said that the donation was handed over on Tuesday as the donation process and the consolidation of accounts had taken a considerable amount of time.

Ambassador Cheng said that the Malaysian government and people extended their assistance and supports to China when China was confronted with the disaster caused by severe snowstorm early this year.

In May this year when China's Sichuan Province was struck by a strong earthquake, Malaysia again extended their assistance, Cheng said.

Malaysians of various races and from all walks of life donated money and materials generously to express their solicitude, he said. The scenarios were heart-touching.

He noted that Malaysia's valuable assistance is the testimony of the friendship of the Malaysian people with the Chinese people.

This will be engraved on the chronicle of China-Malaysia relationship, he added.

A destructive 8.0-magnitude earthquake hit China's southwestern province of Sichuan on May 12. Some 69,107 people have been killed in the mountainous region where the quake center was located, while 18,230 others remain missing, according to the latest figures released by the Chinese government.

(Xinhua News Agency June 4, 2008)