Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu on Tuesday called for concerted effort to provide relief to those affected by torrential rains in southern China last week.

"Heavy rain still continues in southern China, which has entered a season with frequent natural disasters," said Hui at a meeting on disaster reduction held here on Tuesday.

Hui required strengthened disaster forecasts, better organized relief work, enhanced reservoir management and timely allocation of disaster relief to victims.

"Since the start of June, continuous rainstorms have ravaged the regions of Hunan, Guizhou, Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangxi and Fujian. The central government has launched an emergency response mechanism and sent rescue teams to the disaster areas to assist the relief work," said Hui, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Hui urged local authorities to help farmers resume production and provide adequate food, clothes, safe drinking water and timely medical treatment to disaster victims.

The death toll caused by torrential rains in southern China rose to 76 on Tuesday afternoon, with reports of five more people losing their lives, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

(Xinhua News Agency June 13, 2007)