A total of 81.37 million Chinese in areas battered by natural disasters will need food support to see them through the winter-spring period, figures from the Ministry of Civil Affairs show.

A statement from the ministry Thursday said the number of people in disaster-hit areas was 25 percent more this year than the average figure for the past 20 years.

As well as food, about 20 million are in need of clothes or heating.

The ministry called this year "one of the most disastrous" for the country in the past 20 years, second only to 2008, when the devastating Wenchuan earthquake left more than 87,000 people dead or missing and more than 374,640 injured.

On Thursday, the ministry and the Ministry of Finance jointly allocated 4.1 billion yuan (US$617 million) to buy food, clothes, quilts and heating devices for disaster-hit people.

"Relief funds from the central government must reach county-level governments by mid-December, and their civil affairs departments must ensure that relief money and materials reach the hands of local people by the end of December," Vice Minister of Civil Affairs Luo Pingfei said in a meeting Thursday.

The ministry urged local civil affairs departments to step up supervision and guidance on the reconstruction of damaged homes.

"In regions where the reconstruction cannot be completed this year, local governments must make sure that every disaster-hit person has a warm place to spend the winter," Luo told the meeting.

Xu Shaoshi, minister of land and resources, said about 2,000 people were killed or missing this year after five major mud and rock slides in west China's Guizhou, Gansu, and Yunnan provinces.

(Xinhua News Agency November 19, 2010)