Output redirection?

[Yuri Karlsbrun]

Hello,

I, probably, need bash-help mailing list, but I could not find it.

Here is the bash script fragment:
LOG_FILE="./logfile"
...
>$LOG_FILE

I supposed that the statement above redirects stdout to the logfile.
But the following 'echo' statement prints on the screen. The logfile is
opened. What is the real purpose of the statement above?

Thanks,
        Yuri