(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-01-29 17:28

BEIJING - With many provinces hard hit by appalling weather, China's politburo has put disaster relief at the top of the agenda for local authorities.

The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) urged local authorities to regard disaster relief as the "most pressing task" at present and make "all-out efforts" to ensure normal production and life in the areas hit by unprecedented bad weather in the past half month.

The call came after a politburo meeting on Tuesday, chaired by Chinese President Hu Jintao, which studied the effects and damage inflicted by icy rain and heavy snow and made plans for future relief work.

Most of China's south is set to suffer from further icy rain and snow in the next few days with some provinces facing from storms, said a statement issued by the meeting.

The appalling weather would greatly affect the work and life of residents, especially with regards to transportation and energy supply.

Relevant regions and authorities must "fully realize the severity" of the effects of the disasters, "take serious responsibility for the people", "rely firmly on the people" and make "all-out efforts" on disaster relief to win this "formidable task," the statement said.