BEIJING - The death toll from flooding in northern China's Shaanxi province rose again Friday, with Premier Zhu Rongji urging rural areas in the Yangtze river basin to be on alert for "severe flooding" later this summer.

In one of the hardest hit areas in Shaanxi's Ningshan county, 47 were confirmed dead as of Friday morning, up from an official death toll of 11 on Thursday, a local civil affairs official told AFP. "There are still 158 people missing," the official said. Officials in other hard hit areas in Shaanxi, including the counties of Foping and Shiquan refused to diverge from the official toll announced Wednesday of 152 deaths throughout the province and 266 missing.

But the death toll was bound to rise as rescue and recovery efforts grew and as more than 500 kilometers (300 miles) of roads were cleared and telephone links reestablished, officials said.

China's Civil Ministry announced Wednesday that a total of 205 people were dead and more than 36 million affected this month after torrential rains unleashed flooding in Shaanxi, Sichuan, Hubei and Guizhou provinces and the Chongqing municipality.

Press reports said the death toll had risen to 29 in Hubei, 30 in Sichuan and three in Chongqing, with more rain falling Friday. In separate disasters in the western-most Xinjiang region, 22 people were killed due to flooding and dust storms in recent weeks, a local civil affairs official told AFP.

Premier Zhu, on an inspection tour of central provinces along the Yangtze, urged officials to brace for flooding this summer that could be worse than disastrous floods in 1998, the People's Daily reported.

In 1998, the Yangtze River was the scene of some of the most devastating floods in recent Chinese history leaving more than 4,000 people dead. The Yangtze River Anti-Flood Headquarters forecast last month that the region was likely to receive more rain during the coming season than in a normal year due to abnormal weather, including cyclones and strong tides, resulting from the El Nino phenomenon.

The rain is expected to be concentrated in June and July. Meanwhile Beijing had allocated five million yuan (604,000 dollars) in emergency funds to Sichuan province and another eight million yuan to Shaanxi, the China Daily reported.

Some 489 millimeters (19.5 inches) of rain fell on the south central part of Shaanxi between June 8 and June 10, triggering mudslides and landslides that have covered roads and railways. More than 300 towns and villages were affected in the province and 83,000 homes damaged, officials say.

Copyright AFP/WeatherOnline 2002