About 141 trains have been delayed nationwide by Saturday due to China's worst winter storm in decades, affecting about 212,000 passengers, the Ministry of Public Security said in Beijing on Saturday.

The Beijing-Guangzhou railway, the north-south trunk route, however, had restored operation and its performance was improving, the ministry said in a press release.

On Saturday, 168 trains arrived at stations adjacent to Guangzhou, capital of the southern Guangdong Province, and 185 left.

According to the Railways Ministry, 1.4 million people were still waiting to leave Guangzhou by train as of Friday.

"All of them may be on a train by the Spring Festival Eve," said Wang Yongping, a ministry spokesman.

Elsewhere, the Beijing-Zhuhai expressway, the country's north-south trunk road, suffered a setback on Saturday.

The expressway section in Guangdong had reopened traffic on Friday evening but the road was frozen again on Saturday morning, the ministry said.

Local police were controlling traffic along a 20-kilometer stretch of south-bound lanes and had completely closed 14 km of north-bound lanes because of ice.

At present, more than 600 people were de-icing the expressway, the ministry said.

The worst snow in five decades in the country had so far killed60 people and forced nearly 1.76 million to relocate in 19 provinces and autonomous areas by Friday.

(Xinhua News Agency February 3, 2008)