Beijing  - The official death toll in last week's earthquake in south-western China's Sichuan province neared 56,000 Friday, with more than 29,000 still missing, the government said.

As of late Thursday evening, 55,239 deaths had been registered from the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan and 577 in neighbouring regions, said Li Chengyun, vice governor of Sichuan on Friday in Beijing.

The Sichuan provincial government said it had rescued nearly 84,000 people from the rubble and that the magnitude-8 quake also injured 281,066, while 24,949 are still missing.

Asked what defines a "missing" person, a spokesman for disaster relief in Beijing said "It can mean that we can't find the corpse or the person."

There are more than 200,000 volunteer workers in the disaster area, reported vice-governor Li.

"We need tents and makeshift houses," said Li on Friday, adding that more than 5 million of the quake affected people need proper shelter.

Reconstruction after the earthquake will take three years said the provincial official.

As of Thursday, domestic and overseas donations for quake victims had reached 21.4 billion yuan (3 billion dollars) and 1.9 billion yuan (275 million dollars) had already been sent to quake-hit areas.

The government relief fund for the quake had reached 14 billion yuan (2 billion dollars).

More than 7,000 aftershocks have hit Sichuan in the 11 days since the quake, with the strongest measuring 6.1 magnitude. (dpa)