A senior official said on Tuesday that a "decisive victory" have been achieved in the drainage of China's main quake lake Tangjiashan.

Liu Qibao, Communist Party chief of the southwest China's Sichuan Province, made the remarks after water level in the lake reduced to between 720 and 721 meters at 5:00 PM, which means the number of people under threat downstream the lake have dropped from 1.3 million to less than 50,000.

More than half of the lake's 250 million cubic meters of water have been discharged from the lake as of 5:00 PM.

The influx and outflow of the lake reached a balance at the current water level, according to the Tangjiashan Lake emergency rescue headquarters.

The lake's dam was also more secure with the drop of water level, the headquarters said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 10, 2008)