The Chinese leader, who cut short a trip to Latin America to oversee the emergency response, visited the region four days after it was hit by a 6.9-magnitude quake that killed 1,706 people and left 256 people missing.

His comments came as search teams were boosted by the rescue of a 68-year-old man trapped beneath rubble for more than 100 hours, state media reported.

The official Xinhua news agency said he appeared to be in a stable condition and was receiving medical care.

"Rescuing those people who are trapped is still the main task. We must treasure each life," Hu said in Datong Village, where he met survivors, state media reported.

Hu said the provision of essential items such as food, drinking water, shelter, quilts and warm clothing was a priority. Supplies have been in short supply in the isolated area.

Setting up temporary schools was also a key task, he added.

More than 100 students and 12 teachers died as schools and dormitories collapsed -- and dozens more are missing -- state media reported, recalling the 2008 quake in neighbouring Sichuan when thousands of students died.

"There is a lot of work to be done, we will try our best," Hu said.

The president chaired a meeting of China's top leaders on Saturday, urging an all-out effort, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

"As long as we have hope, we will put 100 percent into the rescue work," Miao Chonggang, an emergency official at the China Earthquake Administration, told a news briefing.

More than 6,000 people have been pulled alive from the rubble of collapsed buildings, Miao said. The number of personnel aiding rescue and recovery operations on the Tibetan Plateau had risen to 15,000.

On the streets of Jiegu, the largest city in the shattered region, boxes of bottled water were dropped to help residents cope with water shortages as aid continued to pour in.

Infrastructure in Jiegu suffered major damage in the quake, with the water supply "basically paralysed", Xia Xueping, spokesman for relief efforts said.

Officials have warned of a growing disease threat due to sanitation risks including damage to water supplies that could leave them polluted, although no such outbreaks had yet been reported.

The Dalai Lama, who Beijing considers a separatist and was born in Qinghai province, has appealed to Chinese authorities to allow him to visit the quake zone, where more than 12,000 people were injured and 100,000 left homeless.

In Jiegu, residents were talking excitedly about the possibility of the Tibetan spiritual leader visiting for the first time since he fled after a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule.

"Everyone would like to see the Dalai Lama come here. He should come here," said 52-year-old Dorje, who like many Tibetans goes by one name, as he circled a local temple in a daily prayer ritual.

"The Dalai Lama was born in Qinghai (province)," he said with a smile. "I think the government will allow him to come home."

However, it appeared unlikely Beijing would allow the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader to visit the crippled area to comfort victims in person.

Tibetan Buddhist monks wearing maroon-and-saffron robes have been a prominent part of the rescue effort, digging by hand in search of survivors after the quake pancaked traditional mud and wood homes.

Monks cremated hundreds of victims on Saturday as hopes dimmed of finding further survivors and rising fears of disease.

The scale of the calamity and fears of disease forced a break from traditional Tibetan "sky burials" in which corpses are left on mountaintops to decompose or be consumed by vultures.

Health authorities in the quake zone are particularly concerned that marmots who emerged from their burrows after the quake could spread pneumonic plague, Xinhua cited Jie Xuehui, a provincial health official, as saying.

A team of 16 quarantine workers and 10 plague specialists, equipped with disinfection vehicles and medicines and vaccines had been deployed, Jie said.

Relief efforts have been complicated by sub-zero temperatures at night and scant oxygen due to the altitude of around 4,000 metres (13,000 feet).

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