Plague could break out in quake-hit areas if victims' bodies were not buried soon, a local official said on Thursday.

Many bodies are trapped in debris and heavy-lifting gear cannot get through blocked roads to the disaster areas, said Bai Licheng, a senior Communist Party official of the Aba prefecture in Sichuan Province.

Since the destructive earthquake on Monday, Bai has been searching for survivors with a rescue team in Yingxiu of Wenchuan County, epicenter of the quake.

High temperatures would quicken the rotting of bodies, and plague would break out, he warned.

Some bodies are put together on the ground in the town, and there is already bad smell in the air.

"We are in urgent need of body bags," Bai said, adding there is an urgent need for food and water.

"Air-dropped food and drinking water are limited and far from meeting the demand," he said.

He said some survivors have fetched water from a mountain spring, but it is unclear if the water is safe for drinking.

The People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China (CPC), is to publish a commentary on Friday warning the quake-hit areas to be on high alert against disease outbreaks and urging measures to ensure social stability.

"We have to be highly alert against the potential dangers and beef up prevention measures to avoid serial disasters that threaten people's lives and property," it says.

On Thursday afternoon, Gao Qiang, vice health minister, vowed that the central government aims to prevent the outbreak of large-scale epidemic.

He said the bodies of the dead would be handled properly as soon as possible to prevent harmful bacteria from growing.

"We should not add to the losses caused by natural disasters and let people suffer more just because we have not done our job well," said Gao.

The Ministry of Health Thursday released a working plan for disease prevention in quake relief.

"At the first phase after the disaster, saving lives should be taken as top priority. Afterwards, public sanitation and epidemic control and prevention should be thoroughly carried out," it said.

It said the bodies should be cleaned on the spot and buried as soon as possible. It suggested bodies should be buried far from water source and down wind from densely populated areas.

It also stipulated monitoring of diseases, food, water and environment hygiene, control of disease-spreading animals, and psychological counseling.

It ordered to timely start an emergency disease monitoring mechanism to instantly detect potential epidemic diseases.

The General Political Department and the General Staff Department of the People's Liberation Army Thursday ordered forces engaged in rescue work to intensify disease prevention, preventing plague breaking out in quake-hit areas.

The military sources just revealed that four temporary bridges had been built Thursday over the Zipingpu reservoir in Dujiangyan City, connecting the city with Yingxiu Town.

Large-sized rescue equipments, including heavy-lifting gear, excavators, and bulldozers, and large number of troops would be sent into the epicenter, an officer with the Chengdu Military Area said.

A 7.8-magnitude quake jolted Wenchuan County in southwest China's Sichuan Province Monday afternoon.

More than 50,000 people are feared dead in Sichuan Province, the rescue headquarters of the State Council said Thursday and the confirmed death toll in the province was 19,509 by 4 p.m. Thursday.

Another 102,103 people were injured and 12,300 buried in the rubble. Rescuers have pulled 13,400 people alive out of the debris.

(Xinhua News Agency May 16, 2008)