Meanwhile rainstorms continued to plague the south of the country, which has seen loss of life and mounting economic damage as a result of flooding.

Rainfall in large parts of the country was artificially induced - ironically at a time when much of China is suffering from flood conditions.

Thundershowers could account for rainfall of up to 20 millimeters today in most parts of North China and southern parts of Northeast China, including Beijing, Tianjin, Liaoning Province and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

In Beijing and Tianjin, special shells and rockets were launched on Wednesday to make the rain heavier and help alleviate the drought.

This is the first time artificial rainfall has been induced in the capital this month, according to sources from a specially-established office in Beijing set up to influence the weather artificially.

More than 240 cannon balls were fired in Beijing's Pinggu County and Haidian District. The move helped to create the biggest rainfall since spring in the capital.

The cannon balls include silver iodide, which acts as a catalyzer which absorbs more vapor and helps create more rain.

However, experts from the Central Meteorological Observatory said that the drought, which is the worst since the 1990s, will not be markedly alleviated by the rainfall, as the rain volume is only 10 to 20 millimeters in most areas, apart from Hebei Province which has seen 24 millimeters.

Gongshui River in Ganzhou in East China's Jiangxi Province yesterday experienced flooding which brought its water level 3 meters above the warning level.

The heavy rainfall also flooded farmland and killed livestock in Jiangxi's Ningdu and Shicheng counties.

Meanwhile, the water level of the Xijiang River in South China's Guangdong Province exceeds the warning level by nearly 5.4 meters. Experts said they could not predict when the flood peak would be because of the complicated situation in the upper reaches of Xijiang River.

(China Daily 06/15/2001)