China OKs 4 foreign rescue teams for quake zone

A Chinese man walks past roads damaged by falling debris near the Zipingpu Dam near Dujiangyan, southwestern China's Sichuan province, Thursday, May 15, 2008. China warned the death toll from this week's earthquake could soar to 50,000, while the government issued a rare public appeal Thursday for rescue equipment as it struggled to cope with the disaster. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

BEIJING—After days of refusing foreign relief workers, China has accepted offers from four countries to send in rescue teams.

Hours after saying it will accept a Japanese rescue team, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement early Friday that specialist crews from Russia, South Korea, and Singapore would be welcome as well.

The turnabout came as the death toll from Monday's magnitude-7.9 quake soared.

Rescue work has reached a critical stage -- 72 hours after the quake, the chances of survival for people trapped beneath rubble is falling, and the government has vowed not to abandon the search for survivors.

The communist government has for decades refused outside expertise in disaster relief operations, preferring to rely on military mobilizations. After Monday's quake, the government initially said it welcomed foreign aid, money and goods but not international rescue workers.

The Japanese team is made up of firefighters, police, technicians and medical and other personnel; about half of its 61 members arrived in the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu early Friday.

A 29-member Russian team, including rescue workers and medical staff, was also preparing to help search for survivors and clear rubble, the Xinhua News Agency said.

South Korea has 41 rescue workers and more than 20 medical staff on standby. The size of the contingent from Singapore was not immediately known.

China has received international aid worth more than $100 million and materials worth more than $10 million, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Thursday. Still needed are tents, clothes, communication equipment, machines for disaster relief and medicines, he said.

Eighteen rescue experts -- 10 from Britain and eight from Canada -- were in Hong Kong awaiting Chinese visas, the South China Morning Post newspaper reported Friday.

"It is frustrating. There is nothing we can do about that," Willie McMartin, leader of the team from Britain's International Rescue Corps, was quoted as saying.

Other relief organizations and foreign governments said they offered assistance this week only to be turned down. An Australian offer to send expert search and rescue teams has yet to be accepted, an Australian aid official said on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the media.

"The Chinese authorities have done a fantastic job mobilizing troops, but troops are not everything. You need specialist teams with equipment, otherwise you're not going to find them," said John Holland, operations director of Rapid UK, a British-based search and rescue charity whose offer was rejected this week.