About 100 primary and middle-school children from China's quake zone will recuperate in Hungary and Bulgaria next month, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Thursday.

The children, from southwest China, would go to the two nations at the invitation of the two governments from August 4 to 25, Liu Jianchao told a regular press conference.

Hungary and Bulgaria both had long relations with China and the invitations embodied the friendship of the Hungarian and Bulgarian peoples toward the Chinese people, he said.

"We are grateful and appreciative," Liu said.

The move would help deepen understanding and friendship, especially between the young people, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency August 1, 2008)