India hopes to discuss with China about offering assistance on the relief and reconstruction of the areas hit by the devastating May 12 earthquake, Indian ambassador to China Nirupama Rao said in Beijing on Monday.

"We know there are special needs to rebuild schools and homes and to provide medical care, especially trauma counseling for the affected," Rao said at a seminar marking the 70th anniversary of a China visit by an Indian medical team.

She expressed the will of her government to send a relief team to the quake-hit Sichuan Province, saying her country would like to stay in touch with the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs and Sichuan provincial government "to identify special projects that will help the affected people."

"It would be a great idea that the team could provide aid in the earthquake-stricken areas," Rao told Xinhua.

The 8.0-magnitude quake centered in Sichuan's Wenchuan County had left 69,181 people dead, 374,171 injured, 18,498 missing and millions homeless as of Monday noon.

In 1938, a five person Indian medical team came to China to help the Chinese in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. One of the doctors, Dwarkanath S. Kotnis, was well remembered in China for his selflessness and untiring support to the Chinese people.

Kotnis died of illness on December 9, 1942 at 32. A memorial hall was built in Baoding, in the northern Hebei Province, in commemoration of Kotnis and Dr. Norman Bethune, the devoted Canadian who also served in China.

India and China have established a joint medical team comprising of 10 young specialists from each side to commemorate Kotnis and his team, Rao told the seminar.

The team will go to Hebei to give free medical treatment to rural people. It will then go to India in November to provide similar aid.

(Xinhua News Agency June 24, 2008)