BEIJING, Dec. 20 -- The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, has called for relevant departments and branches to activate their emergency response measures to ensure financial services for earthquake relief, the bank said Wednesday.

The bank said it has beefed up the support of monetary policy tools and given priority to ensuring the demand for emergency credit funds, while opening a "green channel" to swiftly allocate disaster relief funds.

Currently, the Gansu and Qinghai branches of the bank have allocated 170 million yuan (about 24 million U.S. dollars) and 50 million yuan, respectively.

The bank also pledged efforts to secure the safety and smooth operation of financial infrastructure for payments, clearing and credit investigation, and to restore financial services in the affected areas as soon as possible, while allocating funds to ensure the cash supply for people's livelihoods and disaster relief.

The bank will continue to make all-out efforts to ensure financial services for earthquake relief, and will provide prompt support for earthquake relief and post-disaster reconstruction.