A young mother holds her baby as she uses a Red Cross Society of China donation box in Guangyuan, Sichuan, where many people say they hope to help victims in Haiti. [Liu Ren/China Daily]

The country hopes to extend its relief and reconstruction efforts, said Shen Zhiliang, deputy head of the foreign ministry's department of Latin American and Caribbean affairs.

As well as official aid, volunteers from Sichuan are also attempting to get to the Caribbean nation to help out. Among them is Fan Xiaofan, 53, a volunteer with the Chengdu emergency team for eight years and one of 16 members looking to head to Haiti to assist the major multinational relief operation.

"If we get permits to go to Haiti, we can be ready to leave in one hour," said Fan, who helped in the post-earthquake reconstruction of Tangshan, Hebei province, in 1976.

Chen Yan, deputy director of the Sichuan emergency team, is also preparing to make the 13,000-km journey to Port-au-Prince, capital of the Caribbean country. Within just hours of hearing about the disaster, he had collected his rescue equipment and booked a flight to Beijing to join up with the National Earthquake Disaster Relief Team.

However, he was unable to travel with the team because he is not on the official payroll. He is now awaiting a visa for the United States, where he will then attempt to fly to Haiti.

"Once I arrive in New York, I will try to get a visa for Haiti. As it will take some 20 hours to arrive in Haiti via the US, I will miss the best time to save people from the rubble. But as a man from Sichuan, I must go there," said Chen, 38.

"Overseas rescue and medical teams helped Sichuan in the earthquake in 2008, and countless people in the world donated money and material to us. Sichuan people must repay that kindness by participating in the earthquake relief in Haiti."

He said the best time to help people escape the rubble alive was the first 72 hours after the disaster. As Chen will be unable to reach Haiti for some days yet, he said he would concentrate his efforts on helping to get more aid from China to Port-au-Prince.

"It is better for me to ask non-government organizations to donate when I am in Haiti, so I can tell them how serious the disaster is," he said.

Chinese people have been expressing their respect for their eight dead compatriots, four of whom were officials sent by the Ministry of Public Security to support peacekeeping efforts in Port-au-Prince, while the rest were United Nations police officers from Southwest China.

The bodies of Zhu Xiaoping, Wang Shulin, Guo Baoshan, Li Xiaoming, Zhao Huayu, Li Qin, Zhong Jianqin and He Zhihong were to arrive in China this morning on a chartered China Southern Airlines flight.

The ministry turned its website black yesterday and opened online mourning sites. So far, more than 336,200 people have presented "virtual bouquets". Major Chinese website portals also opened mourning columns, with more than 666,800 netizens presenting virtual flowers through sina.com.

Police across the country have also been mourning their colleagues, with more than 13,000 border officers in Yunnan province - where three of the UN officers came from - paying their respects with ceremonies at several stations.

Citizens of Kunming, capital of Yunnan, paid tribute in the mourning hall at the police command offices, which were specially opened to the public, said Fan Yuquan, a command publicity officer. More people were expected to come before the venue closed on Thursday, he said.

Zheng Tao, husband of He Zhihong, 38, of Lijiang, Yunnan, paid tribute to her yesterday by saying she was "the perfect wife".

"We have a 3-year-old boy and he's been asking why he hasn't seen his mother for so long. She first left for her peacekeeping in Haiti in December 2007, when our boy was only one. This was her second time out there," said Zheng, who married He, a Chinese Armed Police Force major, in 2003.

China sent officers to assist peacekeeping efforts in Haiti when it was hit by an outbreak of violence following floods in 2004, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday. The Red Cross Society of China also donated funds after the country was devastated by hurricanes in 2008.

A foreign ministry official said at the news briefing that China has made many contributions to UN peacekeeping missions around the world, and would consider sending more peacekeepers to Haiti if needed.

"China will consider it according to decisions made by the UN Security Council and UN requests," said Yang Tao, counselor of the Ministry's department of international organizations and conferences.

The country has sent 14,000 peacekeepers on 24 UN missions, while about 2,100 Chinese officers are currently working in 10 areas, he said.

Ai Yang and Xinhua contributed to the story