The death toll in the nation's rugged southwest climbed to more than 12,000 people, and state media cited an official who said that an additional 9,400 might still be buried under debris.

Rainstorms hampered relief efforts, but workers pulled 58 survivors from the rubble of fallen buildings in a number of cities north of the Sichuan capital, Chengdu.

As the hours ticked by since the Monday afternoon quake, which registered a devastating 7.9 magnitude, hopes of finding more survivors ebbed amid the devastation.

State television offered nonstop coverage of the quake aftermath, much of it in live broadcasts, displaying often grisly images of relief workers pulling bodies from rubble but also underscoring the vigorous relief efforts of senior government leaders.

Most striking were images of the premier, looking emotional, as he offered encouragement to bedraggled survivors, urged rescuers to greater efforts, and gave a deadline for laborers to clear roads of huge boulders and rockslides that the quake unleashed from mountainsides.

China's leaders are rarely seen except in official ceremonies with foreign dignitaries, so the images of Wen, looking both commanding and emotionally shaken amid scenes of desolation, marked a departure for the government.

"I've never seen anything like this," said Russell Leigh Moses, an American political scientist based in Beijing.

Wen rushed to Sichuan province immediately after the earthquake, and spent most of the next 24 hours coordinating relief efforts.

"I think they were affected by Katrina," Moses said, referring to the bungled U.S. disaster-relief efforts in New Orleans after the 2005 hurricane. "They don't want to be on the wrong side on this."

China's ruling Communist Party has a mandate that depends on its ability to deliver economic growth, maintain social order, and provide rapid help in emergencies.

The party was shaken this year by its failure to quickly respond to massive snowstorms and to severe unrest in Tibet and by a troubled global Olympic torch relay before the Beijing Games on Aug. 8-24.

At the world-famous Wolong National Nature Reserve, all 86 pandas were reported safe late yesterday, according to the Associated Press. Citing the Foreign Ministry, it said 31 British tourists panda-watching in the preserve also had returned safely to Chengdu but there was no word on 12 Americans on a World Wildlife Fund tour.

France's nuclear protection watchdog noted that "some" of China's nuclear facilities were less than 60 miles from the quake's epicenter, but it said it did not know whether any had been damaged.

Hundreds of aftershocks, 13 of them greater than magnitude 6.0, jangled nerves all day in Sichuan province.

Corpses were laid out in the streets or remained in the wreckage of multistory buildings.

In Dujiangyan, workers used doors wrenched loose from buildings as gurneys to carry bodies of students from the rubble of the Juyuan Middle School, which collapsed, entombing hundreds of students and teachers.

As sobbing relatives tried to enter the debris field to look for loved ones, relief workers kept them away.

Survivors huddled in makeshift tents. People in bandages roamed the streets. Pieces of collapsed buildings lay atop crushed automobiles.

"According to past experiences of earthquakes, there may be signs of life after one week or even more," Wang Zhenyao, chief of disaster relief for the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said in Beijing. "Now is not the time for us to talk about giving up."

Offers of assistance arrived from Japan, Russia, Taiwan, the Czech Republic, Britain, the United States, South Korea and Germany.

"We welcome funds and supplies. We can't accommodate personnel at this point," Wang Zhenyao, the Civil Affairs Ministry's top disaster relief official, told reporters.

The Dalai Lama, who has been vilified by Chinese authorities who blame him for recent unrest in Tibet, offered prayers for the victims. The epicenter skirts the Tibetan highlands.

Torch Ceremonies to Note Quake Victims

The Olympic torch will be carried through quake-ravaged Sichuan province on schedule next month, but China

is scaling back celebrations along the route out of respect for earthquake victims and will observe a

minute of silence each morning before the torch relay proceeds, officials said.

Donation boxes will be set up along the relay route to help provide relief for victims of the quake, according

to a statement posted on the Web site of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games.

Olympic organizers sought to reassure foreign visitors they would be safe during the Aug. 8-24 event. Zhang Jian, director of the organizing committee's project management department, stressed to reporters that the quake area is a long way from Beijing and would have no effect on the Games.

In any case, Olympic venues have been constructed to withstand earthquakes with an intensity of up to 8.0 magnitude, according to Li Zhanjun, deputy director of the Olympic media center.   - Washington Post