Traffic is expected to resume on Tuesday afternoon if weather improves on the mudflow-blocked highway between southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region and Sichuan Province, said repair workers.

More than 100 motor vehicles are still stranded by the mudflow as of Monday. Chen Falin, an armed police officer in charge of the repair work, said about 10,000 cubic meters of mud and rocks had to be removed to resume traffic.

The section of the highway, 10 meters above a river at Pailonggou in Nyingchi Prefecture, was damaged on Saturday by mudflow caused by heavy rainfall.

More than 20 armed police had repaired 30 meters of the damaged part and evacuated 109 vehicles and 267 people. But the repair work was hampered by fresh landslides caused by continuous rainfall.

August is a rainy season in the area, and rainfall has increased by 30 percent in the first half of this year over normal.

(Xinhua News Agency September 2, 2008)