The Chinese government had set up 26,730 temporary houses by Wednesday for those made homeless by the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan and other areas, said a high-ranking official from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MHURD) Thursday.

Qi Ji, Vice Minister of the MHURD, said at a press conference here that the authorities were erecting another 14,353 makeshift shelters in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces and 68,448 were scheduled to go up.

"With the assistance of provinces nationwide, China is producing about 5,000 pieces of pre-fabricated buildings daily in June," said Qi, adding the production, shipment and erection was going smoothly.

The quake which had claimed 69,127 lives as of Thursday noon has affected 45.71 million people, according to the State Council Information Office.

(Xinhua News Agency June 5, 2008)