KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysia started enforcing a ban on gasoline sales to foreign-registered vehicles near the Thai border Monday, causing some stations' business to trickle nearly to a halt.

Government officers were deployed at stations in northern states to monitor the ban, which is meant to help tackle the problem of soaring subsidies that keep Malaysia's retail prices at nearly half of those in Thailand.

Thousands of Thais and Singaporeans drive into Malaysia every day to fill their tanks and take advantage of lower prices due to the subsidies, which were expected to cost the government 45 billion ringgit (US$14 billion; �9 billion) this year.

Abdul Wahid Bidin, acting president of the Petroleum Dealers Association of Malaysia, said 90 percent of the usual customers of some fuel stations near the border were from Thailand.

"There are complaints from the dealers that they've got no business, no customers at all," Abdul Wahid said, expressing hope the ban will be lifted soon.

Government authorities have indicated the ban will be a temporary measure until they revise the current subsidy system to help low-income Malaysians and to prevent waste or abuse of the system.

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said Sunday that the ban would be postponed for 300 stations within 30 miles (50 kilometers) of Malaysia's borders with Thailand and Singapore, but local media clarified Monday that the delay was only for the southern state of Johor near Singapore.

Regular gasoline in Malaysia costs 1.92 ringgit (US$0.61; �0.40) a liter, or 7.27 ringgit (US$2.34; �1.52) a gallon. Thailand sells regular gasoline at 31.59 baht ($1.01; �0.73) a liter, or 120 baht (US$3.87; �2.51) per gallon.

Alang Zari Ishak, president of oil company Esso Malaysia's dealers association, said the ban affected about 100 gasoline stations in the north near Thailand.

"The implications will be quite severe," he said, adding that a system in which foreigners pay higher prices _ instead of being completely barred from buying fuel _ would be better.

Search for crashed chopper in China quake zone

SHIFANG, China (AFP) - - Thousands of soldiers scoured China's mountainous earthquake zone Monday for a military helicopter that was carrying injured quake survivors when it crashed in fog.

There was no clue as to the fate of the five crew members and 14 passengers who were on board the army Mi-171 helicopter, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Four rescue helicopters had launched missions in the area where the crash was believed to have taken place, assisted by more than 3,000 soldiers on the ground, but so far the search had been in vain, Xinhua said.

Military personnel involved in the effort said they believed the crash took place in the vicinity of Zhaogong Mountain in China's southwestern province of Sichuan, which bore the brunt of the May 12 quake.

The military was broadening the scope of the search, according to Xinhua. The defence ministry did not immediately respond to AFP requests for updates.

The helicopter was on a mission to carry epidemic prevention experts to Li county, and was returning with residents too seriously injured to be moved by land, the agency added.

Reflecting the gruelling routines forced on military chopper crews in the quake zone, it had completed 63 flights since the earthquake on May 12.

The death toll from the quake, China's worst for a generation, has risen to 69,016 with 18,830 more missing, the government said Sunday.

Meanwhile more than a million people waited anxiously for drainage work to start on a menacing lake -- the size of more than 50,000 Olympic-size swimming pools -- created when quake-triggered landslides blocked a river.

Regular troops and paramilitary forces toiled for a week to dig a diversion channel for the Tangjiashan "quake lake," hoping to prevent it overflowing and flooding densely populated areas downstream.

By late Sunday, the last troops had been flown out by helicopter, leaving a handful of experts charged with monitoring the situation, the water resources ministry said on its website.

It remained unclear early Monday if the plan to divert water via the newly dug channel would succeed.

State television said earlier that plans to blast holes in the rubble with dynamite had been abandoned amid fears it could trigger a flood.

The Tangjiashan lake is just one of about three dozen "quake lakes" created by the 8.0-magnitude tremor, and people throughout the region are watching as the others also keep rising.

"We have sent our water resource specialists and geologists to check out the quake lakes," said Wen Miaogui, a spokesman of Hongbai township, one of several communities devastated by the quake.

"We think they won't be too dangerous. Downstream we have a lot of good infrastructure, so we think we will be able to avoid disaster," he told AFP.

While that work goes on, people are still trying to piece together their lives.

"I've got no insurance� and I lost everything," shrugged Han Jun, 30, as he looked at the pile of rubble that used to be his home in the town of Beichuan.

"I kind of knew we lived in a high-risk zone, but somehow, I never thought we'd have an earthquake like this."

Of the dead, more than 11,000 are reported to be children and teachers who were killed when schools collapsed on top of them.

It made Children's Day, which China marked Sunday, a particularly poignant occasion as grieving parents mourned their offspring and vented fury over the alleged shoddy construction of many school buildings.

"(The authorities) said we should come and celebrate because the kids here today are the future of Beichuan," said a young mother surnamed Li.

"But my son should be out there... my son should be out there."

Still no word on survivors of helicopter crash in China earthquake zone

CHENGDU, China - Thousands of soldiers combed remote mountains in China's Sichuan province Monday in search of a military helicopter that crashed while transporting earthquake victims.

The chopper was returning after dropping off four members of an epidemic prevention team in the town of Lixian, the official China Daily newspaper reported, underscoring efforts to prevent disease outbreaks in quake-hit areas and crowded camps for those made homeless.

State broadcaster CCTV reported on its main noontime news broadcast that 4,000 soldiers were taking part in the search but gave no word on any survivors. China has relied heavily on its 250-strong fleet of Mi-171s to transport supplies and relief workers and evacuate the injured from widely scattered towns in the mountainous area where roads were wiped out by landslides.

Meanwhile, soldiers completed work on a cannel to divert water from a lake formed when landslides triggered by the quake blocked the Tongkou river. Water levels in the lake had been rising steadily and threatened to flood surrounding areas, prompting authorities to evacuate nearly 200,000 people already uprooted by the quake.

Downstream villages stood empty Monday after police and soldiers ordered people out, although some families were holding out for further confirmation.

"We're waiting until the last moment," said farmer Liu Zhenyang, 35, sipping tea with his family in the town of Qinglian. "Then we'll run to the hills." As a warning, authorities had spray-painted a flood line outside their door just level with their toes.

On top of nearby Taohuashan, or Peach Blossom Mountain, hundreds of families were waiting to see if their homes below would be swept away. People said the government would warn everyone with sirens and firecrackers if the lake burst.

On the quake's three-week anniversary, a reconstruction committee has been set up under the National Development and Reform Committee, the Cabinet's top economic planning agency. An initial meeting resulted in a list of tasks and general schedule for completion, the NDRC said in a news release issued Monday. It gave no details and did not say when the meeting had been held.

Committee members have dedicated themselves to a reconstruction plan that is "of high quality, that will stand the test of time, allow victims to rebuild their homesteads, and create a solid foundation and conditions for wider scale reconstruction," the NDRC news release said.

The quake killed at least 69,000 and left more than 5 million homeless. Authorities have rushed to construct tent camps and prefabricated housing ahead of the summer rainy season and its expected hordes of disease-bearing mosquitoes.

With local hospitals overwhelmed, more than 10,000 of the injured have been transferred from Sichuan to 340 hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai and more than a dozen provicnes, the Health Ministry said on its Web site.

Elsewhere in the quake zone, Hossam Elsharkawi, head of support operations for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, said his organization was preparing to bring in two large water purification units that will provide clean water to 15,000 people each.

Elsharkawi said the federation expected to be helping with relief work in Sichuan for three years and would ship in 100,000 tents by the end of June.

While describing the scale of the disaster as "massive," Elsharkawi praised the government's rapidly moving recovery effort and mobilization of aid.

"They can teach the world a thing or two on responding to such large-scale disasters," he said.

"The government is doing an excellent job in urban areas, but it's taking time in places like this because it is so dispersed," said Elsharkawi, speaking in the village of Jiulong village, just north of the provincial capital of Chengdu.

China quake batters ancient sites, tourism

DUJIANGYAN, China - Taoist Master Dan Jia picks through the wreckage of the 1,500-year-old Erwangmiao Temple, piling books in a stack and dusting off altarpieces.

The elaborate complex of hillside halls and chambers is among renowned historic sites in Sichuan province that were badly damaged by the massive earthquake in China almost three weeks ago.

"We used to have thousands of visitors every week," said Dan, wearing a dusty gray robe. "This is an old temple, but there's never been anything like this."

The May 12 quake damaged 45 national and 59 provincial historical sites, state media said Friday, citing the State Administration of Cultural Relics. It estimated the destruction in the tens of millions of dollars and said repairs would take a minimum of two years.

The earthquake, which killed an estimated 80,000 people, also dealt a blow to the tourism industry _ a mainstay of the local economy in the resort city of Dujiangyan.

More than 3 million visitors came Dujiangyan and its neighboring scenic Qingcheng mountain area last year, generating revenues of 3.3 billion yuan, or about $475 million, said Ji Yanli, deputy marketing director for Dujiangyan's tourism department.

But since the quake, hotels and restaurants have closed en-masse, and damaged roads and other infrastructure will keep visitors away for months if not years. The direct economic losses to the sites damaged in the quake were estimated at about $288 million, though the toll could have been worse, Ji said.

"For many years, we've tried to preserve the historic buildings. They have been renovated regularly so they are quite strong," Ji said.

In the quake's aftermath, some historic sites have been converted to emergency shelters. Around 40 members of the city's Muslim community have taken up residence in their 500-year-old mosque, sleeping and eating where visitors once shot holiday photos.

"Dujiangyan is heavily dependent on tourism, so there's not much hope in the short term for the local economy," said the building's gatekeeper, Zhou Xinquan.

Luckily, other sites, including the city's historic covered bridge and ancient waterworks, were largely unscathed.

Several panda breeding areas, including the world-famous Wolong Nature Reserve west of Dujiangyan, also have long been a tourist destination in Sichuan province.

But panda enclosures at Wolong were badly damaged in the quake, which also killed five staff at the park. Like other tourist sites deep in the mountains, Wolong has been closed pending repairs and the restoration of electricity and water supplies.

Conditions there remain so poor that the Chinese government last week arranged an emergency food shipment of about five tons of bamboo for the 47 pandas still at the reserve.

Chengdu resident Chen Bin drove to Qingcheng mountain with a carload of friends and family to check out the damage. Family members posed for pictures in front of a giant wooden gate adorned with blue figurines.

"We used to come up here five or six times a year," Chen, 36, said. "Of course, we plan to return in the future."

With massive demands for shelter, food and medical care, restoring the region's historic sites is a low priority at the moment. Taoist master Dan said a few officials from government religious affairs departments have visited since the quake but have yet to announce any specific rebuilding plans.

Ji said her department would announce a reconstruction plan next month, although no date had been set for the start of work.

"The biggest challenge for us now is to know when the aftershocks will stop. Until they stop, we can't begin rebuilding because we have to ensure our workers' safety," she said.

LoNeLy GiRl [2:07 PM]