Communications in most counties hit by the devastating May 12 quake in southwest China have been restored, said a senior official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Monday.

Communications fibre cables in Wenchuan, Lixian, Maoxian, Qingchuan, Pingwu and Heishui were all through, but Beichuan still had to rely on emergency communications vehicles, said Xi Guohua, vice minister of the ministry at a press conference.

The key fibre cables at Heishui, the repair of which encountered the most difficulties, were connected to the network at 5:28 p.m. on Sunday despite several aftershocks, he said.

These seven counties in Sichuan Province, along with many townships under their administration, were cut off from the outside after the 8-magnitude earthquake on May 12.

The devastating earthquake has left 34,073 people dead nationwide as of 12:00 a.m. Monday, and another 9,509 people remained buried in the worst hit Sichuan Province.

About 76 of the 151 townships hit by the quake have seen communication cables put through, and repair work in the remaining 33 townships was still underway, Xi said.

"We will use minor-caliber satellite facilities along with new fibre cables to fix the network in these 33 townships, " Xi said, "we promise it would be done in a few days to make the rescue and relief work easier.

"The most difficult thing for us is that roads to these townships are still blocked, and equipment for the repair work can only be delivered by helicopers," he added.

He told reporters the repair work had been progressing by 200 meters at a time with workers carrying the needed fibre cables on their shoulders to the site amid danger from repeated landslide and rolling stones.

An employee of China Mobile was killed by falling rocks when he was repairing the fibre cables linking Lixian, Xi said.

He also said the repair work for the moment was meant to guarantee the rescue and relief efforts, and the reconstruction of the communications network, which would be more complicated, had just started.

The central government would set up a team consisting of seismic experts to guide the reconstruction work, for instance, to avoid building homes and facilities on seismic belts, he said.

"The repair work so far also told us that we have to upgrade shock-resistant capacities of our communication facilities as we can see that fibre cables were vulnerable to damage as caused by quakes, and more satellite facilities should cover remote areas to send out timely information in case of emergency," he added.

(Xinhua News Agency May 19, 2008)