once counted, the bodies will add to the human devastation from floods that have swept through the south, east and north of the country since the beginning of the month, killing more than 600 and leaving some 250 missing.

Petros Gebre, the deputy police chief in Jinka, 800 kilometers (500 miles) south of Addis Ababa, said flood survivors from the omo River area had told search and rescue teams the location of the bodies on the island.

"It had been unreachable until today, and we are dispatching search and rescue teams to verify the numbers," he told AFP by phone.

At the same time, authorities advised residents living near dams in the west, south and north to leave their homes as water rose to critical levels, threatening to burst the structures or force controlled releases of water.

"The Ethiopian Meteorological Agency is asking people who live around the dams to move to higher ground to take precautionary measures, as the rain in the highlands is increasing and dams have water beyond their capacity," it said.

In a statement read on state radio and television, the agency urged civilians to tune in to the state channels for updates on the situation at dams on the omo, Awash and Blue Nile rivers.

A similar warning was issued on Sunday by a government task force that said the rains might force the controlled release of water from the dams, worsening already devastating flood damage.

The threatened facilities are the Gilgel Gibe dam on the omo, which has already flooded huge areas in the southwest, the Koka on the Awash River that has flooded in the east, and the Tise Aby on the Blue Nile in the north.

Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation said it had started releasing water from the Gilgel Gibe dam with great care and control, but did not say what amount.

"Taking into consideration the wellbeing of the dam, the people downstream and the trend of the rain in the coming weeks, we are releasing water from the dam with great care and control," Mehert Debeb told state TV.

"At the same time, we are monitoring what impact can have down stream," he added. Earliers officials had warned that the water in dams was overflowing.

In addition to at least 626 people confirmed dead in the floods, 73,000 have been affected, many of them displaced by raging waters that have also killed thousands of heads of valuable livestock and ruined huge tracts of farmland.

Federal authorities and humanitarian groups are scrambling to deliver supplies to affected people, but driving rains and ruined infrastructure have obstructed efforts to aid the country's flooded areas.

Poor weather has continuing to hamper relief efforts, particularly in the southwest where up to 10,000 people remain marooned in 14 inundated villages.

Already overwhelmed authorities have appealed for international aid, and US troops began relief work over the weekend in the town of Dire Dawa, about 500 kilometers (300 miles) east of Addis Ababa, where 256 people were killed by floods on August 6.

The 35 Djibouti-based US naval engineers set up dozens of tents to house many of the some 6,000 people displaced. They also erected sanitation facilities amid growing fears of the spread of malaria and water-borne diseases.

Forecasters have warned that six areas in the north, west and south of the country will likely face further flood threats from the downpours that are expected to continue until the end of the rainy season in September.

Ethiopia, home to some 70 million people, has suffered heavy floods and droughts in recent years, ruining agriculture that provides livelihood for the majority in the Horn of Africa nation.

In the past few years, flooding has affected large areas of eastern and southern Ethiopia, displacing tens of thousands of people and causing damage running into millions of dollars.

Last year at least 200 people were killed and more than 260,000 displaced when heavy rains pounded the region.

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