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Wenchuan (ANTARA News/Reuters) - China on Thursday raised the death toll from a massive earthquake in the southwest of the country to at least 20,000, as hopes faded for a further 25,000 buried under rubble for three days.

The Communist Party leadership told officials to "ensure social stability" as Monday`s 7.9 magnitude quake spawned rumours of chemical spills, fears of dam bursts and scenes of collective desperation.

About 130,000 army and paramilitary troops assisted the search and rescue effort in the worst affected Sichuan province, sifting through dozens of towns turned to rubble.

Rescuers in the city of Dujiangyan wrapped corpses dragged from the rubble in tarpaulins and sped them to morgues. They were so busy that a notice outside one collapsed school asked parents to search for missing children in shifts.

Three days after the quake, hopes of pulling survivors from the ruins dimmed and the waves of rescuers appear to be hampered by lack of specialised equipment.

But there were moments of joy and relief. "Thank you, thank you," one 22-year-old said after she was eventually pulled to safety, covering her face against the light in Dujiangyan. She had been trapped, unhurt but unable to move, under the ruins of a hospital.

Xinhua news agency quoted the government in the mountainous southwestern province of Sichuan as saying the death toll there had risen to more than 19,500. With hundreds of deaths in neighbouring provinces, the overall toll is at least 20,000.

The strains from tens of thousands of homeless were also growing.

"There is enough food but not enough water. We have only had bottled mineral water the past few days, nothing to cook with," said Wang Yujie, a teacher whose school withstood the quake.

More aid was arriving and efforts at coordination were also improving, with Sichuan setting up a hotline for victims and ambulances with Beijing licence plates on the roads.

More than 12.5 tonnes of relief goods had been airdropped and scores of helicopters were flying in rescuers and aid.

The Foreign Ministry said quilts, tents, food, satellite phones, medicines and excavators were needed most. Gao added bandages, antibiotics and splints to sophisticated equipment such as ventilators and kidney dialysis machines.

But in some villages near the badly hit area of Beichuan, angry residents complained they had had little to eat and were forced to drink contaminated water.

Many are sleeping outside or in makeshift shelters where the lack of water and blocked toilets has raised fears of disease, but a vice minister of health, Gao Qiang, said there had been no reports of epidemics.

But new threats emerged from damaged dams.

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