President Hu urges army to help reconstruction

Chinese President Hu Jintao who is also the chairman of the Central Military Commission is calling on China's armed forces to help rebuild areas pounded by recent snow storms.

The Central Military Commission has asked officers to carry on with their good work over the past weeks during which they provided disaster relief and helped bring life back to normal in disaster-hit areas.

The army is being told to give top priority to reconstruction efforts and to provide aid and transportation to civilians in those snow-hit areas where they are stationed.

Nearly 640,000 military personnel have been mobilized, in addition to almost 2-million reserve forces to help with disaster relief.