China will dispatch an elite unit from the People's ­Liberation Army (PLA) to help Ebola-hit Liberia, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday, responding to UN calls for a greater global effort to fight the deadly virus in West Africa.

The PLA squad, which has experience from a 2002 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), will build a 100-bed treatment center in Liberia, the first such facility in the three countries most impacted by Ebola to be constructed and run by a foreign country.