State media and officials said yesterday 205 people were known to have died, but scores are missing and officials fear the toll will rise.

Deaths were reported in Shaanxi, Sichuan, Hubei and Guizhou provinces and in Chongqing municipality following rains that have damaged 3.6 million hectares (nine million acres) of farmland over the past week, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The flooding has occurred at the start of the annual summer rainy season.

Floods often plague China in the summer and the current onslaught has raised fears of a repeat of 1998, when the most devastating deluge in half a century killed more than 4,000 people.

Worst affected in recent days has been northwestern Shaanxi province, where Xinhua said 152 bodies had been recovered after torrential rains triggered landslides and burst river banks across 30 counties between Saturday and Monday.

Nine people were killed when a railway bridge in the province collapsed just three minutes after a train crossed it.

"There might be an increase of casualties, but figures need to be checked," an official from an anti-flooding office in Shaanxi told Reuters. "Military troops are repairing highways."

Thousands more people have been left homeless after the rains damaged more than 167,000 hectares (410,000 acres) of farmland and destroyed homes.

In southwestern China, 210,000 people were evacuated from their homes in the province of Sichuan, Xinhua news agency said.

At least 27 people are known to have died there since rains began battering the area last week, according to the Web site of the Sichuan Daily newspaper.

Around Suining, one of the province's worst hit areas, up to 300 mm (12 inches) of rainfall was recorded in one day.

"WORST RAINS FOR DECADES"

The deluge has even affected the normally arid northwestern region of Xinjiang where officials reported some of the worst flooding in decades.

Some 500 houses have collapsed and more than 1,600 hectares of crops are damaged, Xinhua said.

Faster than usual melting of mountain snow in the relatively impoverished region exacerbated flooding which caused more than $2.65 million in damage in the Turpan prefecture alone on Friday and Saturday, the agency said.

It quoted the Xinjiang flood control office as saying such rainfall had "rarely been seen in the region in recent decades".

Areas around Hanzhong, about 900 km (560 miles) southwest of Beijing, were submerged under 1.5 metres (five ft) of water.

Two people were killed and at least 100 were missing in the deluge described as a rare event by an official at the local anti-flood office, state media said.

The Ministries of Health, Agriculture, Education and Water Resources have provided money, medicine and supplies to stricken areas, Xinhua said.

Other official aid included 8 million yuan ($970,000) in relief funds to Shaanxi, it said.

China has been striving to limit the potential of floods to bring chaos and destruction to the country.

The government has banned tree felling, urged farmers to plant trees and pushed ahead with projects like the mammoth Three Gorges Dam, which Beijing says will help control floods.