He also called on officials to ensure the displaced were cared for, to help them rebuild destroyed homes and to assist farmers in replanting destroyed fields, Xinhua said.

Paramilitary troops were dispatched to major rivers to pile sandbags along the banks.

Details of how flooding had affected prisons also emerged, with Xinhua saying more than 4,200 inmates had to be brought out while wardens scrambled to maintain control without power, water or adequate food.

The prisoners were stranded in two prisons in Shaoguan city of Guangdong province for about two days, Xinhua said.

Twenty wardens managed to bring food and water to the inmates evacuated from one jail on Saturday when some 30 prisoners began to show symptoms of stomach problems and skin diseases, it said.

Bilis, which claimed dozens of lives in the Philippines and Taiwan, has been sweeping China since Friday, bringing torrential rain and flooding to several provinces in southern, eastern and central parts of the country.

The civil affairs ministry said Tuesday 155 people were still missing.

More than 25.4 million people were affected with about 2.45 million people evacuated from dangerous locations and economic losses reaching 15.9 billion yuan (1.98 billion dollars), the ministry said.

Some 208,000 homes collapsed while 282,000 were damaged, it said.

The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters has sent a dozen task forces to check flood prevention and control efforts along major rivers, Xinhua said Wednesday.

In Guangdong water levels at eight large reservoirs have exceeded the danger limit with six others approaching the warning line.

Heavy rain and severe floods also destroyed sections of many highways and railways in southern China.

China's flood season from June to August usually sees overflowing rivers and mountain torrents, often causing deadly landslides.

By Wednesday the tropical storm was dying down and moving to Guizhou and Yunnan provinces in the southwest.

More typhoons or tropical rainstorms are expected to hit China this year, partly due to the warm ocean current in the northwestern Pacific and high temperatures in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, meteorologists were quoted by Xinhua as saying.

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