A 60-member Chinese team, including rescuers and medical staff, left Beijing at 8:30 pm yesterday for Haiti to help the earthquake-hit nation.

Food, tents, medical equipment and advanced disaster relief equipment such as life detectors as well as sniffer dogs are being ferried in the chartered plane to assist the Caribbean country.

Hours after the disaster, President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao instructed officials to keep tabs on the situation and try every means to rescue the eight buried Chinese peacekeepers. More than 10 of their colleagues are missing.