Hiroko Tabuchi reports from Tokyo on a Japanese team’s rescue efforts.

The first foreign rescue team allowed into China started searching for survivors in quake-ravaged Sichuan on Friday, but poor coordination with Chinese authorities caused confusion and delayed their efforts.

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AP Photo/Xinhua, Li Tao

A team of 31 Japanese rescue professionals, trained to detect people trapped under rubble with high-tech sensors, searched for a mother and baby thought to be trapped under a collapsed hospital dormitory in Qingchuan County, one of the worst-hit counties in Sichuan. But rescue officials said miscommunication with the Chinese government delayed them getting started.

“I’m afraid we got here very, very late,” deputy team leader Koji Fujiya said from the scene in a phone interview. He added the team would work through the night. “We’re going to keep on searching as long as there’s even a glimmer of hope.â€

Earlier Friday, the rescue team had been taken to the site of a large landslide near Guanzhuan, where people were believed to be buried – but the team’s tools and training weren’t useful in that setting.

“We don’t have heavy machinery. There must have been a miscommunication,” Mr. Fujiya said.

The rescuers then traveled to a more urban area. It was late afternoon when they began rescue work at the hospital dormitory. Chinese rescuers had already pulled nine bodies from the rubble, but the mother, her baby and possibly a third person were still thought to be trapped.

Chinese officials weren’t immediately available to comment on the coordination efforts.

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AP Photo/Kyodo News

The foreign rescue workers started their work four days after the massive quake, amid criticism that China was late in accepting foreign assistance. While survivors are known to have lived for days under collapsed buildings, earthquake experts say chances of rescue drop after 72 hours, especially if they don’t have water.

China, which was initially reluctant to accept foreign offers of help, accepted Japan’s offer on Thursday. Japan’s team flew to Beijing later that day. On Friday, China’s Foreign Ministry said it had also invited specialist teams from South Korea, Russia, and Singapore.

The Japanese dispatch followed a goodwill visit to Tokyo by Chinese president Hu Jintao earlier this month, the first by a Chinese head of state to Japan in a decade. It was the first time ever that China has accepted outside professionals for domestic disaster relief, according to the official Xinhua News agency.

The Japanese team is using high-tech equipment – including devices that detect carbon dioxide exhaled by survivors under the wreckage – to look for survivors. A second group of 29 rescuers and three sniffer dogs have arrived in the Sichuan capital of Chengdu, and were set to join the rescue team later Friday.

In Tokyo, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, a government organization that’s coordinating the effort, blamed the mix-up on lack of coordination with the Chinese government.

“[The mix-up] is unfortunate… but because of the rush in getting the team to the quake zone, there wasn’t enough time to fully coordinate with Chinese authorities,†JICA official Tomohiro Ono said.

– Sue Feng in Beijing contributed to this article.