Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu on Sunday thanked the fire fighters and forest policemen for putting out the forest fire in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The fire, which occurred in the Great Khingan Range in northeast China, was extinguished on Sunday morning after raging for two days.

About 1,580 forest police and fire fighters were dispatched to deal with the fire, which was detected by the national forest fire control headquarters by satellite on Friday.

Air patrols are monitoring the area to prevent possible fire resurging, the official said. The fire fighters were expected to withdraw on Sunday afternoon.

The extent of the damage and cause of the fire are still unknown.

The range has been at risk of fire since April 20 due to a long drought spell and relatively high temperatures, which might have led to the forest fire, according to local forestry officials.

(Xinhua News Agency May 8, 2006)