President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have postponed planned overseas visits because of a strong earthquake in northwestern China that killed more than 600 people. Hu postponed visits to Venezuela and Peru after a scheduled summit of Brazil, Russia, India and China slated for Thursday and Friday and a state visit to Brazil. Before arriving in Brazil, Hu took part in the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington from April 13 to 14. Wen Jiabao has postponed a scheduled visit to Brunei, Indonesia and Myanmar on April 22 to 25. The 7.1-magnitude earthquake that hit China's northwestern Qinghai Province on Wednesday has left more than 600 people dead, another 313 missing and 9,110 injured. About 100,000 people were left homeless. Hu held seperate telephone talks with Peruvian President Sebastian Pinera and Venezelan President Hugo Chavez, informing them of the situation in China's earthquake-hit region. The Chinese government has been organizing relief effort and Hu told the leaders he has to postpone visits to their countries in order to return home as soon as possible to participate in the work. China highly values its relations with Peru, Hu told Pinera. China wishes to work with Peru to deepen political relations between the two countries, strengthen pragmatic cooperation and open a new phase of China-Peru all-round relations of cooperation and partnership, he added. China also attaches great importance to relations with Venezuela and hopes to enhance pragmatic cooperation in various fields and promote the relations of strategic partnership between the two countries to a new high. 