Drought has been spreading in northeast China after parts of the region were hit by the most severe drought in 40 years this spring, the national climate center said Tuesday.

In Tongliao City of Inner Mongolia, one of the leading animal husbandry bases in China, more than 70 large and small reservoirs have been dried up and four fifth of the grassland was hit by drought, which also made it impossible for farmers to sow in over 400,000 hectares of farmland, said Zhang Qiang, a senior official with the center.

Zhang blamed the severe drought to lack of rainfall and high temperature, saying that since March 1, most northern provinces only had 20-50 mm of rainfall, which was 50-90 percent less than the average level over the past years.

According to the latest weather forecast from China's Central Meteorological Station, there would be only 10 mm of rainfall in Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces in the next ten days, while temperature in these areas would be higher than normal years.

The weather forecast also said new drought might hit some provinces in the south, such as Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi.

(Xinhua News Agency June 16, 2004)