Medium and heavy snow will continue to plague west China and reach northeastern regions in the next three days, said the National Meteorological Center (NMC) on Wednesday.

The snow will hit northwest Yunnan and the southeastern areas of Tibet and Qinghai in the west, as well as the country's northeastern provinces. Part of northwest Yunnan will experience blizzards, the NMC said.

Sleet and rain was forecast in the south and southeast.

The NMC urged local governments to prevent the bad effects of the snowy weather on land and air traffic, power grids, agriculture and animal husbandry.

A new round of snow has hit many provinces of China since last week, disrupting traffic and killing livestock.

The country just went through the worst snow in 50 years, whichclaimed 129 lives, devastated 485,000 houses and damaged about 25 million mu (about 1.67 million hectare) in crops, leading to a direct economic loss of 151.6 billion yuan (about US$20.8 billion).

(Xinhua News Agency February 28, 2008)