Iran's official announced quake death toll rose to 30,000 on Sunday, while hopes are fading for survivors.  

An official of Kerman governorate in the southeastern Iran late Sunday put the death toll in the earthquake in the Bam region to more than 30,000.

"We expect the number of dead to exceed 30,000," said the official in the disaster zone, adding "some outlying villages are even more badly damaged than Bam, they are 100 percent destroyed."

Earlier in the day, the state television quoted Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mussavi Lari as saying that more than 20,000 people have been confirmed dead in the devastating earthquake which jolted southeastern Iran on Friday.

"It is my impression, with the scale of the disaster, that the toll is more than 20,000," Lari said live on state television, adding the bodies of 15,000 people killed in the quake have already been buried.

The strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 on the open-ended Richter scale rocked the city of Bam in Iran's southeastern province of Kerman at 5:28 am (0158 GMT) early Friday.

A Chinese rescue team has begun work shortly after arriving in the quake-ruined city of Bam in Iran's southeastern province of Kerman on Sunday.

The Chinese team, the first Asian rescue mission that arrived in the disaster area, has been divided into several groups and joined the rank of local rescuers in search for survivors.

At the Kerman airport, scores of injured people were waiting there for being transferred to other places for treatment and some soldiers were carrying some of them with makeshift stretchers.

Many Iranians have flown in from other parts of the country to inquire about their loved ones and weeps were heard now and again. The airport was engulfed in sorrow and sadness.

Meanwhile, the earthquake has led to disruption of water and power supply, and communication in the city. Mobile phones have become the only approach for contact.

Media reports said hope was fading Sunday of finding many more survivors in the rubble of Bam, two days after a huge earthquake was feared to have cost more than 30,000 lives around the historic city of Bam in southeast Iran.

UN officials said that the search for survivors was expected to end Sunday with the attention shifting to the recovery of bodies and aid for the homeless.

More countries are joining the international humanitarian mission and sending aid to Iran.

A plane sent by the United Arab Emirates carrying 30 tons of food, medical supplies, tents and blankets has landed Sunday in Kerman. The United Arab Emirates is the first Arabian country sending aid to Iran.

Indonesia is to dispatch relief assistance worth at least US$200,000 to Iran. The world's largest Muslim country has called its people to pray for the Iranian victims and their families. Indonesia and Iran are members of the Organization of Islamic Conference.

Bangladesh has announced that it would send medicine and a medical team to Iran, said the country's BSS news agency.

The Philippines has said a rescue and search team including firefighters, doctors, security personnel will soon leave for Iran.

Egypt has dispatched two chartered military planes loaded with 10 tons of aid.

However, an Iranian helicopter crashed near the earthquake-devastated city of Bam on Sunday after delivering aid, killing two pilots and a third person.

The helicopter, which belonged to the Iranian navy, crashed on its way to Bandar Abbas, once it delivered its relief items to Bam, local official Asadollah Iranmansh told the Islamic Students News Agency (ISNA).

(Xinhua News Agency December 29, 2003)