Satellite image of Britain 1000 GMT Thursday

Unsettled weather with showers and more heavy rain has been predicted for the weekend and most of next week.

A Meteorological Office spokesman said: "There is still no light at the end of the tunnel. This has already been one of the wettest years on record and we are still only in November."

Emergency sluices

The Environment Agency has issued a series of flood watch alerts on 15 rivers in different areas, but for the first time in several weeks there are no severe flood warnings in place in the country.

The severe flood warning in place on the River Aire at Gowdall, East Yorkshire, has been downgraded to flood watch as the emergency operation to drain 30 million tonnes of flood water from houses in the village continued.

Engineering work has begun to build emergency sluices to drain flood water back into the river channel.

But after some of the worst rains and flooding Britain has experienced since records began 300 years ago, the Environment Agency says prolonged dry weather is needed before water levels will fall.

A spokesman said: "The ground across much of the country is very heavilty saturated and river levels remain highly susceptible to further rainfall."

Call for trees

The government has said it will give operating authorities - those responsible for the upkeep of flood defences - a 50% increase in funding for river flood defences.

Visiting flood-hit areas on the River Severn, Countryside Minister Elliot Morley said spending would be increased from �76m this year to �114m in 2003/4.

Environmentalists said on Fridy that Britain needs thousands more trees to protect it from future flooding.

The Trees of Time and Place campaign warned that trees provide essential protection from floods, but Britain has the second lowest level of tree coverage in Europe.