A long-lingering drought in China was threatening 133 million mu (8.67 million hectares) of crops, the office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters has said.

The headquarters has demanded more efforts to fight drought in the north, and warned possible drought in the south as affected regions continued to experience high temperatures and less rainfall.

About 58.28 million mu of crops are seriously affected by the drought. A total of 4.61 million people and 4.05 million heads of livestock faced difficulty in accessing to drinking water, as of midday of Friday, according to the headquarters on Saturday.

The drought hit north and northeast China since late July. Zhang Xu, an official with the headquarters said the drought was spreading due to lack of rainfall.

Meanwhile, Hunan and Hubei provinces in central China experienced high temperatures and less rainfall over the past two days and the drought was likely to continue, warned the headquarters.

Last week, the Ministry of Agricultural raised a third-level emergency response to the drought, and asked local governments to struggle to put possible output reduction at the minimum.

It has dispatched three working teams to organize and guide anti-drought efforts in the worst-hit provinces of Liaoning and Jilin, and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

(Xinhua News Agency August 23, 2009)