The death toll in China's major earthquake increased by 15 to 69,122 as of Wednesday noon, the Information Office of the State Council said.

A total of 373,606 people were injured and 17,991 others remain missing in the 8.0-magnitude quake that jolted southwestern Sichuan Province and some other areas on May 12.

Hospitals had treated 96,020 injured people, of whom 72,353 had been discharged, 21,097 were still being treated, according to the office.

By Tuesday, 1,078,488 quake survivors had been found and evacuated by rescuers.

Relief supplies continued to pour into the quake zone. As of Wednesday noon, 794,200 tents, 4.56 million quilts, 11.81 million garments, 699,100 tons of fuel oil and 1.48 million tons of coal had been delivered.

The office said that as of Tuesday, relief workers had built 19,900 temporary houses and another 12,800 were being put together, while the material for 61,300 makeshift houses had arrived in the affected areas.

As of Wednesday noon, domestic and foreign donations had reached 43.68 billion yuan (about $6.24 billion). The government disaster relief fund had hit 23.14 billion yuan, including 18.68 billion yuan from the central budget and 4.46 billion yuan from local budgets.

So far, 12.67 billion yuan, in cash and relief materials, had been forwarded to the earthquake-affected areas, the office said.

Figures from the Ministry of Civil Affairs showed as of Wednesday noon, the international community had donated or pledge to donate 3.555 billion yuan in cash and 1.154 billion yuan worth of relief materials.

So far 258 batches of 388 million yuan worth of foreign relief supplies had arrived in quake-hit provinces of Sichuan and Gansu.

In the 24 hours ending Wednesday noon, 184 aftershocks were monitored in southwest China's quake zone with all the tremors measured at or below 3.9 on the Richter scale, according to the China Seismological Bureau.

(Xinhua News Agency June 4, 2008)