Disaster relief officials said 1.46 million people had been forced to flee their homes and no let up was in sight.

"The flood situation is very grave, especially in Hunan, Henan, Hubei and Yunnan provinces and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region," said Wang Zhenyao, director of the Ministry of Civil Affair's Disaster Relief Department.

He said this year's floods were the worst in decades.

While the annual rains and floods usually strike hardest in rural areas, this year big cities like Beijing and Shanghai have felt the effects with both experiencing freak weather.

"The country has witnessed extreme weather recently in big cities, such as Beijing's unprecedented rainstorm earlier this month, which paralyzed local transportation," Wang was quoted as saying by China Daily.

"The rainstorm in Shanghai on July 12 can be said to be a very rare disaster which happens only once a century." The storm claimed seven lives.

Since late June incessant heavy rains have been pounding large swathes of China, sparking severe mountain torrents, mud-rock flows and landslides.

The inclement weather has claimed 439 lives so far this year, with 21,600 injured, the majority over the summer months, according to figures from the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Natural disasters in general, including earthquakes and heavy snow, have killed 659 people.

Landslides caused by floods have led to 275,000 houses collapsing while another one million have been damaged, forcing 1.46 million people to flee to safety, the statistics show.

At least 5.16 million hectares (12.74 million acres) of farmland has been ruined by the rains, mostly in Hunan, Henan and Hubei provinces in central China and Yunnan and Guangxi in the south.

Total economic losses so far are pegged at 21.95 billion yuan (2.65 billion dollars).

"Disasters like torrential rain, typhoons, mountain torrents and storm tides are likely to occur throughout China at any moment in the days ahead since the entire country is now in its major flood season," the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters warned.

In response, the government has allocated 33 million yuan (four million dollars) in emergency funds and 3,600 tents to flood-stricken areas in central and southern China.

Last year, floods claimed more than 1,900 lives and left millions homeless. The worst floods in recent years happened in 1998 when more than 4,000 people died.

While central and southern China are awash with water, northern and eastern regions are suffering severe drought or scorching temperatures.

The provinces of Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the north are all parched with rain only starting to fall in July, several months later than normal, the newspaper said.

Meanwhile, the cities of Shanghai and Hangzhou in the east and Chongqing and Chengdu in the southwest are sizzling in temperatures of up to 38 degrees

TERRA.WIRE