BEIJING - Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang on Tuesday urged efforts to improve the work of earthquake monitoring, forecast, and disaster reduction and relief to minimize casualties.

Seismic surveillance should be intensified to provide timely predictions in China, an earthquake-prone country, Wang said at a national conference on quake prevention and disaster reduction.

Old houses and important infrastructure needs to be reinforced to endure earthquakes, Wang said.

Educational campaigns must be enhanced to teach the public life-saving knowledge and skills when a disaster strikes, he said.

A devastating 8.0-magnitude quake hit Wenchuan County in southwest China's Sichuan Province in May 2008, leaving more than 80,000 people dead or missing.