BEIJING, Sept 21, 2007 (AFP) - A Russian tourist missing for nearly three weeks in a remote region of western China was rescued Friday, days after the bodies of three companions were located, state press said.

However, two other people in the original six-strong party are still being searched for.

Chinese and Russian rescuers spotted the survivor from the air mid-morning as he walked along the banks of the upper reaches of the Yurungkax river in China's Xinjiang region, Xinhua news agency said.

The man, identified as Alexander Zverev, 35, was airlifted and taken to Hotan city, the report said.

"It is a miracle that Zverev managed to survive in an uninhabited mountainous area at an elevation of 4,000 metres (13,200 feet)," the report quoted Zhang Shaoyun, deputy head of the rescue team, as saying.

Pilots in the helicopter that picked the missing man up said Zverev had difficulty speaking, and appeared "exhausted but very excited."

Zevrev was part of a party of six Russian tourists who failed to show up at a September 2 meeting with an interpreter after canoeing down the river.

Last Saturday, two bodies were found along the upper reaches of the river and another was found on Sunday morning, press reports said.

Investigators said all three died from drowning.

Air searches are continuing for the other two members of the group, which began the trip in a mountainous part of Xinjiang on August 21.

A ground search has been interrupted this week by sandstorms, Xinhua said.

The region, near the border of Indian-controlled Kashmir, is dominated by the Kunlun mountain range, which has several peaks over 5,000 metres.