The death toll from severe flooding in China may have risen to more than 500, official sources have said, as China braces itself for more heavy rain.

There are more than 200 confirmed deaths and the top official in the worst-hit province, Shaanxi has said there is little hope for hundreds more who remain missing.

The acting governor of the north-western province, Jia Zhibang told the China Daily newspaper that about 300 missing people "were not expected to be found alive".

China fears a repeat of 1998, when the worst flooding in half a century killed at least 2,000 people.

Shaanxi province, already hit by wrecked water supplies and washed-out homes, roads and bridges, is expecting more bad weather this week.

Heavy rainfall is also expected in southern China, where landslides have caused dozens of deaths and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes.

Fresh alerts have also been issued in Hunan and Jiangxi provinces, in central and eastern China.

Since the 1998 flooding China has allocated $16.bn for flood control. Measures include:

Banning tree felling

Urging farmers to plant more trees

Forming special army units to combat flooding on major rivers

Pressing ahead with the controversial Three Gorges Dam

China's most treacherous rivers, the Yangtze and the Yellow have not yet burst their banks, state media has reported.

But state television has shown soldiers and workers shifting rocks and sandbags to reinforce the banks of the Yellow River - known as "China's sorrow" because of deadly floods over the centuries - as well as smaller rivers in several provinces including Shaanxi and Gansu.

The government has supplied medicines, money and supplies to the stricken areas, with task forces mobilised to deal with rescue efforts.