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CHENGDU, China : More foreign help arrived in China on Sunday as forecasts of heavy rain threatened to pour more misery on survivors of the devastating earthquake that killed at least 60,000 people.
A Russian military transport plane touched down before dawn in Chengdu, capital of quake-hit Sichuan province, state media reports said, one of 12 Russian flights expected as China grapples to help the millions affected.
China has said 5.47 million people were made homeless by the May 12 quake and more than 11 million people were expected to be housed in camps as areas rendered unlivable were evacuated.
Amid growing concern over possible disease outbreaks in the makeshift camps, conditions looked set to worsen with rain showers forecast throughout the day, building to possible heavy downpours towards nightfall, according to state meteorologists.
China has repeatedly issued international pleas for aid in heading off a post-disaster humanitarian crisis, and the pace of foreign aid began to pick up on Sunday.
Beside the Russian shipments of tents, blankets, field hospitals, and other items expected to total several hundred tonnes, a French medical team also was to arrive in the quake zone on Sunday.
The US Army had already flown in three cargo planes laden with tonnes of life-saving supplies over the past week, according to US officials, while the German Red Cross has set up a mobile hospital to treat the overflowing numbers of injured in the hard-hit town of Dujiangyan.
China has effusively praised the foreign help, which appears to have eased tensions with other countries that were sparked by criticism of Beijing's crackdown on anti-China demonstrations in Tibet in March.
"I would like to sincerely thank the international community, the leaders of the world, the governments and people of every nation for their concern and the materials and the help they have offered," Premier Wen Jiabao told reports on Saturday on a visit to the devastated town of Yingxiu.
Visiting UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon met with Wen in the pulverised town, offering the world's support.
"If we work hard we can overcome this. The whole world stands behind you and supports you," Ban said.
With hope of finding more survivors amid the rubble now extinguished, the focus is turning to clean-up and reconstruction.
State television broadcast images of bulldozers and diggers clearing away debris in a clear signal that the region was moving on.
"Maximum efforts had been made to rescue survivors but there is not a moment to lose in the clean-up and recovery process," a news presenter on state-run CCTV said.
In the town of Hanwang, now an expanse of rubble, a Dutch team of sniffer dogs combed through the crushed remains of the Hanwang People's Hospital for a woman who remained unaccounted for.
"I think we have a lot of work to do today, but it will be only finding dead bodies. I don't think there are any more survivors," Saad Attia, a member of the team, told AFP.
Tourism in Sichuan province -- known for its spectacular scenery, pandas and cultural attractions -- has suffered a terrible blow.
China's national disaster headquarters, at a Saturday press conference in Beijing, put the number of confirmed earthquake dead at 60,560, with another 26,221 missing.
However, Premier Wen had earlier in the day said the death toll "may further climb to a level of 70,000, 80,000 or more."
The disaster is the worst to hit China since 1976, when an earthquake destroyed the northern city of Tangshan. China says that quake killed 240,000 people but the toll is widely believed to have been much higher.
- AFP/vm
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