Foreign rescue teams in the quake-hit southwest Sichuan Province on Monday paid a three-minute silent tribute to victims.

According to Xinhua reporter who accompanied the Japanese rescuers, the Japanese rescue team lined up for the ceremony that began at 2:28 p.m. on the debris of a middle school in Beichuan county, one of the area's worst hit by the May 12 tremor.

Up to now, Japanese rescuers, together with Chinese colleagues, had recovered 18 bodies of the victims.

The Russian rescue team had saved one woman, after 127 hours in the rubble, and found the bodies of four others.

Meanwhile, the Singaporean rescue team, in Hongbai town, one of the worst-hit areas in Shifang City, had recovered five bodies of the quake victims.

The rescue team from the Republic of Korea (ROK), in Yinghua town of Shifang City, had recovered 17 bodies of the victims.

According to the Chinese staff working with the Russians, Singaporean and ROK teams, all the foreign rescuers joined in the ceremony and observed the three-minute silence.

More than 200 foreign rescuers from Japan, Russia, the ROK and Singapore are in Sichuan to help with rescue and relief.

(Xinhua News Agency May 19, 2008)