The team will depart today and bring medicine and medical equipment for a planned 15-day mission, he said, although it could be extended if the situation requires it.

HM the King had expressed his condolences to victims of the deadly earthquake that struck Indonesia's Central Java province over the weekend. Thailand donated Bt4 million and 1,000 tonnes of rice.

According to AFP, the 2004 Asian tsunami shook up aid agencies and prompted them to bolster their presence in Indonesia - a move that has helped relief efforts after the Java earthquake.

"We learned from our mistakes and weaknesses during the tsunami," Deborah Tomasowa, public affairs officer for the aid group Mercy Corps, said. "It is definitely easier."

Only 17 months after Indonesia suffered through the tsunami, which killed 168,000 people in Aceh province alone, the country is grappling to cope with the earthquake in central Java, 2,500 kilometres away.

Many charities operating in the sprawling archipelago were able to quickly dispatch teams to the quake zone from Aceh, in the north of neighbouring Sumatra island.

"We diverted aircraft as well as supplies from Aceh," said Barry Came, a spokesman for the UN World Food Programme (WFP), which is spearheading efforts to provide emergency rations to survivors of Saturday's quake.

From that day, the United Nations had an assessment team on the ground.

The Nation,

 Agence France-Presse