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Rescue workers are beginning to lose hope of finding more survivors

The search for survivors in the rubble of China's powerful earthquake grew bleak, with rescuers in some areas no longer listening for trapped victims.

There were a few tales of rescues even six days after the magnitude 7.9 quake in central China. But the focus of efforts in the disaster zone appeared to shift to clearing corpses from shattered buildings as the number of confirmed dead rose to 32,477.

Another 220,109 people suffered injuries, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The government has said it expects the final death toll will surpass 50,000.

China is suspending the Beijing Olympic torch relay for three days as part of a national mourning for victims of the earthquake.

Meanwhile, people ran into the streets as a strong aftershock - measured by the US Geological Survey at magnitude 5.7 - shook the area for 45 seconds.

Few hopeful relatives were seen in Beichuan, near the quake's epicentre, where several dozen corpses in blue body bags lay in a street, with soldiers regularly finding more dead in the wreckage. Rescue workers in the city sprinkled lime on the bodies and sprayed disinfectant nearby.

A Malaysian rescue team in the town of Muyu, further north, sifted slowly and methodically through the wreckage, using giant cutters to split steel girders. However, they had apparently abandoned earlier efforts to tap on the debris in hopes that survivors would hear and respond.

Dozens of students were buried in new graves dotting a green hillside overlooking the rubble, the small mounds of dirt failing to block the pungent smell of decay wafting from the ground. Most graves were unmarked, though several had wooden markers with names scribbled on them.

Experts say buried earthquake survivors can live a week or more, depending on factors including the temperature and whether they have water to drink - but that survival prospects diminish rapidly after the first 24 hours. A "slightly bruised" man was pulled out alive from a collapsed hospital today after being trapped for 139 hours, Xinhua reported.

The World Health Organisation said conditions for homeless survivors were ripe for outbreaks of disease and called for quick action to supply clean water and proper hygiene facilities.