SHANGHAI, Jul 13 -- ANHUI Province opened its seventh flood buffer zone in Shiyao Bay, home to more than 10,000 residents, to reduce flood peaks, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.

The zone is 19.3 square kilometers and 150 million cubic meters of water can be emptied into the area, the report said.

A total of 403 people have died, 105 are missing and 3.17 million people have been relocated as heavy rainstorms combined with ferocious floodwaters continue to batter central and southern China.

Almost 500,000 people have been evacuated from the projected path of floodwater from the Huaihe River, which is expected to experience its worst flooding since 1954.

Eight flood buffer zones have been used to reduce flood peaks in the middle reaches of the Huaihe, seven in Anhui and one in Henan Province.

Nearly 344,000 of the 488,800 relocated people came from Anhui Province and the rest were in Henan and Jiangsu.

More relief materials, including 80 rubber boats, 40,000 square meters of water-proof fabric, 6,000 life jackets and 100,000 knitted sacks have been sent to the flood-hit provinces.

The three provinces have suffered a direct loss of 8.4 billion yuan (US$1.11 billion), more than a quarter of the country's total.

The central government has set aside 232 million yuan to finance flood recovery efforts in the flood-hit areas.