Later, he visited Nanhe Sports Center, which is now a temporary home to more than 10,000 displaced people in Beichuan.

Also on Friday morning, Premier Wen Jiabao told reporters on a train in Sichuan that the quake was "the biggest and most destructive since New China was founded in 1949," and the quick response of rescue teams had helped reduce casualties.

The premier, who flew back to Beijing on Friday, vowed "to pour out whatever the country is capable of" to combat the massive disaster and fight until the end.

Throughout the disaster area, people are still being found alive, despite being buried for four days.

A day after what experts call the critical three-day window for finding buried survivors alive, rescuers pulled a nurse to safety who had been trapped for nearly 100 hours in the debris of a clinic, one of 33 people saved in Beichuan, Xinhua reported.

Zhang Yan, 36, was rescued at 2:36 pm on Friday. Although she was unconscious, soldiers carried her on the back, rushing her to a nearby medical center.

Others rescued include Feng Shaorong, a businessman in his 40s who was saved at 3:15 pm, and Deng Zhongqun, 72, who was found stranded by soldiers in her badly damaged house.

"Thank you, soldiers!" Deng said after being rescued.

Also rescued on Friday, was a 104-year-old woman in Maoxian county. She remains in a critical condition.

As of 2 pm on Friday, the confirmed death toll was 22,069, with 168,669 people injured, the emergency response office of the State Council said.

In Sichuan, 21,577 people have been confirmed dead and 159,006 injured, Vice-Governor Li Chengyun told a press conference on Friday.

The told death toll nationwide could surpass 50,000, it was reported earlier.

In Mianyang, 8,767 people have been confirmed dead and 59,616 injured, local authorities said.

Over the past four days, rescuers in Sichuan have pulled 21,125 survivors from collapsed buildings, the disaster relief headquarters said.

The province has been hit by 4,432 aftershocks in the past four days, Li said.

More than 140,000 rescuers, including soldiers, firefighters and police officers had been dispatched to quake-hit areas.

More than 32,000 medical staff are also working in the worst-hit areas.

Reservoir safety

The Ministry of Water Resources on Friday dispatched nine emergency repair teams to Sichuan to assess the conditions of reservoirs there.

The teams, comprising more than 100 experts, were sent to six hard-hit regions, including Mianyang, Deyang and Aba, to check the situation of dikes, reservoirs and hydropower plants.

(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency, May 17, 2008)