GUANGZHOU, China (AFP) - - China's gridlocked transport system rumbled back to life Friday but millions of angry travellers remained stranded all around the country, unable to return home for annual holidays amid the worst winter in five decades.

Passengers began to flow out of airports, train stations and bus depots but it was nowhere near enough to clear a massive backlog of travellers stranded for days as after storms hit at the busiest time of year.

The Lunar New Year, China's biggest annual holiday, begins on February 7 and the government said 180 million people head home to be with their families in what is thought to be the largest annual human migration in the world.

"To clear the roads means to ensure that the main railways and highways are opened, to ensure electricity means to repair damaged power lines as soon as possible," Wen was seen on state television as saying.

"To comfort the public means to ensure the livelihood of the people, especially to make sure that those people stranded or delayed are provided with food, warmth and access to medical services."

He also ordered top leaders to "the frontlines of the disaster," calling relief efforts a "time to test the will, the determination and the abilities of our officials."

Weeks of heavy snow and icy conditions have caused 7.5 billion dollars' worth of damage, Zhu Hongren, an official with China's main economic policy agency, told a press conference.

"Such a disaster has been unprecedented in terms of the large scale and the large areas affected. We are in a tough battle to ensure the safety of people and property and ensure economic stability," said Zhu, who is coordinating several ministries on response efforts.

Millions of migrant workers still trying to get home on Friday faced either more waiting or the prospect of a holiday away from loved ones, despite transport woes apparently easing slightly.

In Guangzhou, the capital of southern Guangdong province, 500,000 people were waiting to leave airports and train and bus stations, according to media reports. As the numbers grew at transport hubs in other parts of the country, local authorities were forced to beef up security to keep order.

The China Meteorological Administration said several of the worst affected provinces in central, eastern and southern China were in for further snowstorms and freezing rain this weekend.

About 11.2 million workers in Guangdong had given up hope of returning for next week's holiday -- often the only bright spot in a year of hard work for low pay -- due to the massive traffic snarls, officials there said.

"I've waited three days here already and it looks like I may not be able to get home in time for the Lunar New Year," said a migrant worker outside Guangzhou's main train station.

"I don't think it is fair the way they have handled this situation."

Only travellers with tickets for Friday departures were allowed to board. Those whose trains were cancelled earlier would have to wait until February 6 before they could repurchase tickets, travellers and press reports said.

Continued road disruptions were also expected as persistent freezing rain confounded efforts to de-ice highways, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The government also faces the challenge of restoring food and energy supplies to large areas at a time when output typically falls due to the holidays.

Damage to crops across several provinces has further stoked already high food prices -- a sensitive topic for the government due to inflation's potential for triggering unrest in China.

Zhu and other officials deflected suggestions that the government was insufficiently prepared, implying there was no way to get ready for such ferocious weather.

But residents of hard-hit areas expressed anger.

"The government should have prepared for such situations earlier," Li Xiangxiang, 23, told AFP as she picked over suddenly scarce vegetables at a market in Hunan's capital, Changsha. "I think the government just wasn't ready."

President Hu Jintao visited a coal mine in northern Shanxi province late Thursday, urging miners to increase production to head off the country's worst power crisis in memory.

Officials said Friday the number of train cars used to carry coal to power plants would be raised to an all-time high of 40,000 per day amid reports the nation's stockpile of coal for power generation had dropped to a six-day supply.

The transport chaos has strangled distribution of coal, the source of three-quarters of China's energy, causing blackouts in 17 provinces, according to reports.

The weather has led to the evacuation of 1.76 million people, killed dozens, and affected at least 105 million people in the country of 1.3 billion, according to official figures.

According to aviation administration official Wang Ronghua, some 3,250 flights have been cancelled, 5,550 delayed and 300 forced to return due to bad weather since January 25.

And railway official Zhao Chunlei said 5.8 million rail passengers have been delayed or prevented from travelling from January 25 to Friday, with more than 2,850 trains postponed.

The freak weather has even blanketed the arid Taklamakan desert in far-western China with snow, Xinhua said.

"Never before had the whole desert been covered," it said, quoting local meteorological officials.

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