Indonesia's early earthquake warning network, currently under constuction with help from China and other countries, will help the country in locate, measure and report earthquakes, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao Thursday.

The network will also provide Indonesia with technical support in participating in the tsunami early warning system in the Indian Ocean, Liu said at a news conference.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao attended the special tsunami summit on Jan. 6, promising to help Indonesia establish an earthquake monitoring and tsunami early-warning network.

Liu said the State Seismological Bureau sent a workforce from Feb. 26 to March 2 to hold consultations with Indonesia's meteorological bureau and academy of sciences, and the two sides signed an agreement on constructing the network together.

According to the agreement, said Liu, China will provide seismic equipment worth 27 million yuan (about 3.26 million US dollars). China and Indonesia will have regular meetings on the early-warning network project and cooperation, Liu added.

A 8.5-magnitude earthquake struck at Monday midnight 90 km southeast of the island of Sinabang off the southern coast of Indonesia's Sumatra Island. More than 1,000 people are believed to have been killed.

The quake came three months after a 9.0-magnitude quake rattled the Indian Ocean on Dec. 26, which unleashed tsunamis and left nearly 300,000 people dead or missing across Asia.