A spokesman for the administration, who preferred not to be identified, said Friday that all the fires have been segregated and firefighters are trying to extinguish the remaining flames.

Once segregated, the fires have no chance to spread, the spokesman said. "What we are doing now is to wait until the fires burn out and then we will clean up the areas."

After the fires burn out, firefighters will carefully examine the areas to see if there is any burning ash left, the spokesman said.

So far the fires have not caused any casualties, he added.

The fires have been raging since the end of July in some areas in the Greater Hinggan Mountains, where the largest virgin forests of the country lie. They were caused by lightning strikes.

Some 5,000 firefighters have been sent to the place and have been working around the clock with the help of a modern monitoring system that can tell how fires are developing, the spokesman said.

According to Xinhua News Agency, the State Forestry Administration has urged departments to take measures to prevent more fires in the northern part of the country, where it remains hot and dry and the danger for fires is great.

The administration also ordered that fires be reported in time and extinguished before they spread widely.

Since July, the northern part of China has faced hot and dry weather and rainfall in the region since July have been nearly 60 per cent less than previous years.

The last large forest fire raged in the Greater Hinggan Mountains in 1987, leading to many deaths and huge losses and drawing attention worldwide.

(China Daily August 10, 2002)