A senior Chinese government official said Wednesday that major geological disasters and densely-populated regions would be the two main areas to monitor in the nation's efforts to guard against losses caused by such disasters.

In the first 10 months of 2010, 2,909 people were dead or missing following over 30,000 recorded geological disasters, Xu Shaoshi, the Minister of Land and Resources, said at a meeting held Wednesday in Chengdu, capital city of southwestern Sichuan Province.

Further, the number of people dead or missing during this period was five times higher than in the same period last year, said Xu.

However, the majority of these victims, about 2,000 people, were killed or went missing after five major mud and rock slides which struck areas in west China's Guizhou, Gansu, and Yunnan provinces, Xu said.

A massive mudslide triggered by rainstorms slammed Zhouqu County in northwest China's Gansu Province this past August, leaving 1,510 dead and 255 others missing.

"Our focus in loss prevention and control in the future will be to closely watch the major geological disasters and the areas with high human concentrations," said Xu.

Xu also urged local governments to make specific plans regarding geological disaster prevention, improve the assessment and pre-cautionary monitoring mechanism, and beef up rescue and response systems in the event of an emergency.

(Xinhua News Agency November 3, 2010)