The snowfall, the worst in 50 years in some areas, caused the deaths of dozens of people, mostly in road accidents and the collapse of homes.

The unusually long cold spell has aggravated the winter power shortage by disrupting coal deliveries and supplies of fresh food.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao last week announced the waiver of some transport charges for food trucks and help to 'stabilise holiday-time prices'.

Double-digit increases in food prices during much of the past year have driven China's inflation rate to one of its highest levels in a decade.

Mr Wen warned that energy strains could worsen as power plants' coal reserves run dangerously low.

'The tense situation for coal, electricity, oil and transport nationwide is continuing to develop and could intensify. The most difficult phase has not passed.'

In south-western Guizhou province, 41 cities were left in the dark after the regional electricity grid crashed due to the bad weather.

Mr Wen has also ordered officials to redouble efforts to cope with millions of people heading home for the holiday, state media reported.

China expects more than 2.2 billion trips will be made by rail, air and bus during the New Year travel period from Jan 19 to March 2. The festival falls on Feb 7 this year.

The Railways Ministry has forecast that a record 178.6 million passengers will travel by train over the period, up from 156 million last year.

In Guangzhou in the south, more than 100,000 people crammed the main railway station - the southern end of the key rail link to Beijing. Many of them were rural migrant workers eager to return home for the holiday. The number is likely to rise to 600,000 by today, said the Southern Metropolitan Daily.

The large manufacturing and commercial city has issued emergency orders to help cope with the swelling crowds and called on local universities and other public facilities to provide shelter for stranded passengers.

Along the midpoint of the main Beijing-Guangzhou railway, in Hunan province, power outages led to 136 trains being cancelled on Saturday. It was not immediately clear when they would resume running.

Air travel has also been affected, with numerous flights out of Shanghai delayed because of expected heavy snow.

Several regional airports were closed by the weather, including those in the major cities of Changsha, Nanjing and Hefei.

Due to icy roads, long-distance bus travel was curtailed for much of the past week in the areas hardest hit by the snowfall.

State television also showed footage of thousands of motorists and long-distance truck drivers stranded on long stretches of road hit by heavy snow.

Major highways in Guizhou, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan and Anhui provinces had reopened by noon yesterday but were expected to be closed in the evening with continued bad weather forecast for the coming days.

'There hasn't been any return to warmer temperatures or any chance to catch our breath,' chief forecaster Yang Guiming told the China News Service.

'There's no room for optimism about this abnormal rain and snow weather.'

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS, ASSOCIATED PRESS