The student news agency ISNA quoted Bam governor Ali Shafii for the toll, up from the previous figure of 41,000 given on January 16 by an aide to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who said it could go as high as 45,000.

The Bam quake is still far behind that of Tangshan in China in July 1976 that killed 242,000 people according to official figures but many more in the view of Western experts.

Shafii, speaking at the end of the 40-day mourning period said relief work was still very difficult in Bam, as the influx of people from ruined villages around had raised the city's populatiom from a pre-quake 90,000 to 213,000.

The governor said that over the next 10 days he would carry out a census and oblige all those who were not Bam residents to leave.

He called on the survivors who had not done so to move into the 17 tent villages erected in various parts of the city to facilitate the task of distributing aid.

But Shafii said the health situation was satisfactory and there were no epidemics.

TERRA.WIRE