Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (R) shakes hands with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan during a meeting in Jakarta, capital of Indonesia, Jan. 6, 2005. (Xinhua photo)

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao stressed Thursday that the United Nations is playing a leading role in the rescue and relief operations in the countries struck by the latest Asian earthquake and ensuing tsunamis.

During a meeting with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Wen noted that under Annan's leadership, the world body has made a strong and rapid reaction to the disaster, a reaction highly appreciated by Chinese government, said Chinese delegation sources.

He said the success of the relief operations came from a highly efficient, coordinated and orderly progress of the operations carried out by the international community, which needs from now on to consider and plan the reconstruction and rehabilitation for the normalization of life in the disaster-hit areas.

Wen arrived here Wednesday to attend the Special ASEAN Leaders' Meeting on Aftermath of Earthquake and Tsunami, which gathered heads of state or government, ministers and senior officials from 26 nations and groups.

From a middle and long-term perspective, the international community should speed up the construction of a strong disaster detection and early warning system, the premier added.

"China is ready to strengthen its cooperation with the UN in such fields," Wen said.

Annan, for his part, said that the world has made an unprecedented reaction to the disaster this time, and it is the role of the United Nations to coordinate all the relief and aid operations coming from all the countries and organizations to make them really benefit the people of the disaster-struck countries.

Annan highly evaluated the prominent role being played by China in the relief operations and expressed his appreciation for China's additional assistance of 20 million US dollars to the disaster-hit countries under a multilateral framework.

He also agreed with Wen that the international community should from now on put together the emergency operations with middle and long-term programs of reconstruction and rehabilitation, and establish a global disaster early warning system.