SHANGHAI, oct 9: bignill-cantly raising the toll from summer flooding, a senior Chinese official has been quoted as saying more than 3.656 people died, more than 20 per cent higher than the previously announced figure, reports AP.

Niu Maosheng. vice director of China s flood control bureau, issued the revised casualty count before 1,300 people attending a meeting arranged by the Communist Party's Propaganda department in Beijing Thursday, the Shanghai-based Xinmin Evening News reported in its Thursday editions.

Economic losses exceeded 248 billion yuan (dlrs 30 billion). with more than 5.6 million houses destroyed and nearly 25.8 million hectares (64 million acres) of land inundated. Niu was quoted as saying.

More than 230 million people — a fifth of China's population — were affected by the flooding; the worst hit provinces were Jiangxi. Hunan and Hubei, which lie along the Yangtze River in central China, and Xinjiang in the northwest and Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia in the northeast, the newspaper said.

The flooding, which lasted for more than two months in some areas, was the worst in 44 years on the Yangtze River and in decades in the northeast. But the government often appeared reluctant to divulge damage assessments. prompting speculation that the true number of casualties was much higher.

In the last official damage report, given six weeks ago after the worst of the flooding was over. Vice Premier Wen Jiabao said 3.004 people had died. 5 million houses were destroyed

and 21 million hectares (52 million acres) swamped for economic losses of 166.6 billion yuan (dlrs 20.2 billion).

The flooding was made worse by years of environmental neglect and forced Chinese leaders to confront some of the costs of breakneck economic development. The government banned logging in the western half of Sichuan province starting Sept. 1 to stop soil further soil erosion along the upper Yangtze and its tributaries.

Guangxi in the south has announced a regionwide ban on logging as of Oct. 15. also because of widespread soil erosion. the official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday.

The widespread flooding forced China to move 50.000 prisoners out of harm's way, but not one escaped. Xinhua quoted Minister of Justice Gao Changli as saying Friday.