The indirect reason for the increased death toll was inadequate disaster relief capabilities, he said.

"Many houses are built in places that are prone to mud-rock flows. A lot of houses are made of mud and cannot resist extended flooding. In 2006, many people died when their homes collapsed and in mud-rock flows," said Li.

He vowed to further enhance the country's disaster relief capabilities this year.

Wang Zhenyao, director of the Disaster Relief Department under the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said on Thursday the government would improve three aspects of its natural disaster contingency operation system.

"First, the ability to restore telecommunications needs to be improved. When a devastating disaster occurs and telecommunications are disrupted, we should restore telecommunications in a day, or hopefully, in hours," Wang said.

Secondly, disaster relief methods must be updated. Helicopters and other modern vehicles should be used to distribute materials, he said.

Thirdly, "we should step up efforts to release disaster information in a timely and accurate manner", said Wang.

Li Liguo also promised to improve the natural disaster early warning system by working with the China Meteorological Administration, China Seismological Bureau, State Oceanic Administration, Ministry of Water Resources and Ministry of Agriculture.

He said remote sensing satellites and geographic information systems will be used to give early warning of natural disasters.

Li said the devastating natural disasters in 2006 destroyed or damaged 1.888 million houses. So far, 1.722 million houses have been rebuilt.

"Families in damaged houses that have not yet been rebuilt because of poor weather conditions have been relocated to stopgap living quarters for the winter," he said.

Li said the Chinese government had made an unstinting effort to prevent and deal with natural disasters, and also with public health emergencies and disasters -- such as certain coal mine accidents and environmental accidents -- for which people had to be held accountable.

Government departments have intensified investment and updated facilities to prevent coal mine accidents and environmental incidents. Work safety knowledge has been disseminated. This has led to a reduced occurrence of such accidents, he said.

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