China urges quake rescuers not to give up hope

DUJIANGYAN, China (Reuters) - Chinese President Hu Jintaourged rescuers in the southwestern province of Sichuan to racetime to save lives, days after the most destructive earthquaketo hit modern China, state media said on Saturday.

China has put the known death toll at over 22,000 but hassaid it expects it to exceed 50,000. About 4.8 million peoplehave lost their homes and the days are numbered in whichsurvivors can be found.

"Although the time for the best chance of rescue, the first72 hours after an earthquake, has passed, saving lives remainsthe top priority of our work," Hu told distraught survivorsjust over a week after a jubilant China celebrated the Olympictorch reaching the summit of Mount Everest.

In earthquakes elsewhere in the world, survivors have beenfound a week or more after the disaster. In Baguio in thePhilippines in 1990, a cook was found alive after two weeks inthe rubble of a shattered hotel.

"Quake relief work has entered the most crucial phase," Husaid. "We must make every effort, race against time andovercome all difficulties to achieve the final victory of therelief efforts."

Many survivors were found on Friday, including six minerswho took shelter in a pit for 88 hours, Xinhua news agencysaid.

Xinhua said 33 people were dug out of the rubble inBeichuan, one of the worst-hit areas, still alive.

Premier Wen Jiabao, also visiting the region, said the 7.9magnitude quake was "the biggest and most destructive" sincebefore the Communist revolution of 1949 and the quick responsehad helped reduce casualties.

Wen was comparing the disaster with the 1976 tremor in thenortheastern city of Tangshan, which killed up to 300,000people.

"NO MORE INSTANT NOODLES"

But as the weather gets warmer, survivors were increasinglyworried about hygiene and asking questions about theirlonger-term future.

"What we don't need now is more instant noodles," saidtruck driver Wang Jianhong in the city of Dujiangyan. "We wantto know now what will happen with our lives. We're notimpatient but we need to know something."

In Beichuan, thousands of homeless flooded out of mountainsinto the city of Mianyang, many put into military trucks andtaken to a refugee centre.

"It was really bad up there," farmer Dian Minggui said."The whole mountain changed shape and all the homes aretoppled."

Li Xinshen, 70, fled with relatives, walked for 10 hoursfrom the village of Xuanping to Mianyang.

"Only today on the road out did we see soldiers walkingup," she said. "Not one rescue worker came up to handle us."

Anger has been mounting at the large number of schoolswhich collapsed and there is concern about the safety of anumber of dams and reservoirs which have been weakened by thequake.

In Sichuan and neighbouring Chongqing, at least 17reservoirs have been damaged, with some dams cracked or leakingwater. Several are on the Min River, which tumbles through theworst-hit areas between the Tibetan plateau and the Sichuanplain.

The country is also on precautionary alert against possibleradiation leaks, according to a government website.

China's chief nuclear weapons research lab is in Mianyang,along with several secret atomic sites, but there are nonuclear power stations.

China has sent 130,000 troops to the disaster area, butroads buckled by the quake and blocked by landslides have madeit hard for supplies and rescuers to reach the worst-hit areas.

Offers of help have flooded in. The first foreign rescueteams, from Japan, Russia, Taiwan, South Korea and Singaporehave arrived in Sichuan province.

(Additional reporting by John Ruwitch in Mianyang; Writingby Nick Macfiel Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)