President Hu thanks U.S. for assistance during winter disaster

BEIJING, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- President Hu Jintao thanked the U.S. people and government for their assistance during China's recent deep freeze.

When meeting with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice here on Tuesday afternoon, Hu extended his sincere gratitude to the United States people and President George W. Bush.

He said the close contact between the leaders of the two countries, as well as the exchange of views on major issues of each other's concern, were important to the development of bilateral relations.

Rice recounted Bush's words as saying "the U.S. people is pleased to do whatever to help people in southern China. This is the evidence of our government's being able to cooperate in a time of extreme circumstance."

The snow havoc, the worst in five decades, and even in a century in a few areas, hit 21 provincial areas. It claimed 129 lives and destroyed 485,000 houses. An estimated 1.66 million people lost their homes and were living in temporary shelters.

The U.S. government donated 150,000 U.S. dollars and the U.S. Defense Department provided disaster-relief materials worth about 820,000 U.S. dollars.