The Yellow River is likely to flood this rainy season from July to October, the China Meteorological Administration has warned.

Rainfall was expected to increase by 20 to 50 percent in the section from Sanmenxia in the middle reaches to Huayuankou in the lower reaches, compared with previous years, said Li Guoying, deputy director of the Yellow River flood control headquarters on Thursday.

"The section is historically susceptible to rainstorms."

Li said the river's lower reaches last saw major flooding in 1982.

"On base of the hydrological data, a flood is more likely to happen when there is no flood for a long time."

The headquarters were preparing an emergency plan as well as stepping up inspections on the flood control work.

The Yellow River, China's second longest at 5,464 km, flows from Qinghai Province in the northwest through Sichuan, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan and Shandong before emptying into the Bohai Sea.

(Xinhua News Agency June 5, 2008)