Three more bodies were discovered at the site of an avalanche in northwest China over the past two weeks, increasing the death toll to seven, the rescue headquarters said on Tuesday.

Rescuers were still searching for nine workers, who went missing after about 150,000 cubic meters of snow collapsed at a construction site of a pipeline in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on March 13.

Experts said the chance of survival for the missing persons, who have been buried for about three weeks, is very slim.

Twenty-two workers, who were installing a new pipeline designed to send natural gas from central Asia to the energy-thirsty areas on China's east coast via Xinjiang, were trapped. Six of them were pulled out of the thick snow the next day.

The rescue operation came to a halt on March 20 due to a new round of strong winds, heavy snow and fog, but was resumed late last month after the snowstorm eased.

Nearly 400 people had participated in the rescue operation.

(Xinhua News Agency April 9, 2008)