U.N. chief to visit China after earthquake

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will visit China on Saturday to show his support for the Chinese people after last week's earthquake, which killed more than 55,000 people, a U.N. spokeswoman said on Friday.

"He's planning to go there and the program is being worked out by the Chinese authorities," U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York.

She gave no details on where exactly Ban would be going. She said he was currently in Bangkok and would be returning to Myanmar on Sunday for a pledging conference to raise aid money to help the 2.4 million victims of Cyclone Nargis.

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau, editing by Patricia Zengerle)