Rain-battered parts of south China faced the threat of landslides and fresh floods on Thursday, as Premier Wen Jiabao visited a city threatened by a burst river dike.

The Chinese government has rushed troops, food and tents to flood-hit regions, where millions of residents have been displaced by pelting rain that has swollen rivers and dams.

Wen Jiabao arrived in South China's Jiangxi Province on Thursday to oversee rescue efforts and visit victims of the widespread flooding that has killed more than 200 and caused US$6.4 billion in damages.

Wen arrived in flood-stricken Fuzhou City amid heavy rains. He gave moral support to rescue workers and local residents, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

About 100,000 people were evacuated earlier this week in Fuzhou as the nearby Fuhe River breached its banks and a dike at another portion of the river burst.

Thousands of workers and soldiers will start shoring up the breached dike on Friday, the Jiangxi Provincial Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said on Thursday.

The latest rainfalls on Thursday complicated efforts to plug two gaps left by a breach in the dike along the Fuhe River. The province plans to seal the gap by July 1, according to the headquarters.

"Workers are battling to build a road for transporting stones and other materials and we plan to block the breaches in six days," said a spokesman with the headquarters. The goal is to let the evacuees return to their homes on July 2, he said.

The first gap was about 400 meters wide and the second measured slightly smaller, according to local officials.

Local authorities in Fuzhou have evacuated all of the 100,000 residents living in the flooded areas in Fuzhou, said city government officials on Thursday.

The threat from the flooding is not over yet. Rescuers in Changkai town, near Fuzhou, were slowed by rain as they tried to reach residents perched in flooded towns and villages.

"Our two boats will go out today to rescue people. But the difficulty of our rescue work is increased on rainy days," said one civilian rescue worker, Zhou Fuyu.

"Rain affects a person's vision and it also creates difficulty for us when maneuvering the rescue boat."

More heavy rain could slow, even reverse, efforts to reseal the dike.

"We are preparing to repair the breach, but if it rains and if the water flow in the river is strong, there is still a possibility that there would be further breaches in the dike," Zhou added.

Water levels in the Changkai town and neighboring villages fell slightly from Wednesday night. With ankle-deep water at some places, some residents began to recover wet belongings.

Across Jiangxi, the floods still trapped more than 7,000 people as of late Wednesday, after the rescue of 680,000 residents earlier, according to headquarters staffers.

More heavy rains will pound already-flooded south and east China over the next two days, China's National Meteorological Center forecast on Thursday.

The heavy rains and floods have ravaged 10 southern Chinese regions, leaving 211 dead and 119 missing as of 4:00 PM Wednesday, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

(China Daily June 25, 2010)