China yesterday led international offers to help Taiwan recover from a massive earthquake which left more than 1,500 people dead and 3,800 injured.
President Clinton extended his condolences as well as offering help, and Turkey, Japan, Russia and Singapore were all sending rescue workers to assist in the relief operation after Taiwan's most devastating earthquake this century.
President Jiang Zemin of China, in an echo of the mutual earthquake aid which has brought arch-rivals Turkey and Greece closer together, put aside a bitter cross-trait dispute in his reaction to the Taiwan disaster.
"We are willing to offer any possible assistance to alleviate the quake-caused losses," President Jiang was quoted by foreign ministry spokeswoman, Ms Zhang Qiyue, as saying.
The devastating quake in central Taiwan had "hurt the hearts" of people on the mainland as "Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits are as closely linked as flesh and blood," Mr Jiang said.
But the foreign ministry spokeswoman insisted that China's offer of help had nothing to do with the political differences between the two sides, which have been ruled separately since the end of a civil war in 1949.
President Lee Teng-hui of Taiwan expressed his "sincere gratitude to the concerns from the international community", but made no specific mention of China.
The quake which struck in the early hours was felt in coastal China and Hong Kong, whose Chief Executive, Mr Tung Cheehwa, expressed "grave concern" as a spokesman said the territory's government was ready to help.
A 15-member team from the Turkish non-governmental search and rescue association AKUT left for Taiwan yesterday with sensitive listening devices and heat-seeking cameras used in locating people trapped under rubble, a spokesman, Mr Mehmet Kasap, said.
AKUT made the headlines last month when it emerged as the quickest and most efficient of the Turkish rescue teams after the August earthquake.
The organisation's volunteers travelled to Greece three weeks later to help out Ankara's traditional foe when Athens was in turn rocked by an earthquake that killed 138 people.
Mr Clinton said in a statement that the White House was "in touch directly with the Taiwan authorities to determine what assistance from the United States may be needed".
Japan said it was sending more than 100 rescue workers.