BEIJING - CHINA is bracing for extreme weather, with strong gales and scorching heat in recent weeks serving as harbingers of disasters to come, state media said on Tuesday.

Since the 1990s China has experienced a steadily growing trend of weather-related calamities, such as droughts, storms and floods, with experts saying global warming is partly to blame, the China Daily reported.

'Extreme weather will be more frequent in the future due to the instability of the atmosphere, and global warming might be the indirect cause,' said He Lifu, the top weather forecaster at the China Meteorological Administration.

Last year, the administration responded to 16 weather-related emergencies, the highest number in six decades, according to the paper.

This year could prove equally hazardous, with weather in different parts of China registering various forms of extremes in recent weeks, the paper reported.

The eastern province of Anhui was hit twice by intense storms in June, killing 37 people, while parts of north China are now seeing temperatures as high as 40 deg C, it said.

The changing weather patterns do not just take a toll in terms of human lives but are also immensely costly.

In the period from 2004 until 2008, extreme weather caused average annual costs of 244 billion yuan (S$52 billion), up from an average of 176 billion yuan in the 1990s, the paper said.

China has shown increasing concern in recent years about the consequences of global warming.

But as part of ongoing global negotiations to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012, China has said the bulk of the responsibility for emissions cuts lies with developed nations. -- AFP