LENDING AN EAR: Mr Wen listening to quake patient Lang Zheng at a hospital in Mianyang, after returning to the disaster zone. -- PHOTO: XINHUA

With surprising speed and transparency, Mr Wen, a trained geologist, showed he was in control from the start and handled the earthquake crisis in his heart-on-sleeve way.

Judging from scenes of Mr Wen in the worst-hit parts of Sichuan province, he is treating the disaster as a very personal test of his and his government's bond with the people.

State media reported that he crouched amid the rubble of an elementary school and shouted to a trapped student: 'This is Grandpa Wen, hang on child, we will rescue you!'

Other heroic tales include Mr Wen refusing medical attention even after he fell and cut himself.

He was reported to have bellowed directions to army generals over the telephone and then slammed the handset down.

When rescue missions were delayed due to heavy rain, he reportedly yelled at mission commanders: 'You know who are paying your salaries, you better know what to do now.' He was referring to the tax-paying quake victims.

Since taking office in 2003, Mr Wen appears to have forged a new, media-savvy mould for Chinese leaders, who have long delegated propaganda work to lower-ranking officials and the state-run press.

He was in Sichuan less than two hours after the magnitude 8 quake hit the south-western Chinese province on Monday last week, and he returned to the disaster zone on Thursday.

According to people who saw him in those first few days after the earthquake, he cried more than once.

'He really loves the common people and we can see this is not an act,' said Madam Wang Liangen, 72, a retired maths teacher from the devastated city of Dujiangyan.

Professor Li Cheng, a senior fellow of the Brookings Institution, said: 'A lot of Chinese have been overwhelmed by Mr Wen and his sincerity, honesty and humanity.

'Not many leaders have his qualities.'

Mr Wen has spent Chinese New Year holidays down a coal mine and in an Aids-stricken village, vowed to retrieve migrant workers' unpaid wages, and this year he flew into areas paralysed by severe winter storms to take personal responsibility for the crisis.

Such displays of compassion have made the 65-year-old Premier, who comes from a family of teachers, the leadership's most popular figure.

A compilation of scenes of his visit to Sichuan was immensely popular online, according to the official Xinhua news agency, and devoted netizens have created a forum called 'Premier Wen, we love you.'

Xinhua says there is also an ongoing SMS campaign to collect a million prayer text messages for him.

But not everyone is enamoured with the Chinese Premier. Some Chinese criticised his first stiff appearance after the quake, reading a statement on a plane taking him to the disaster zone.

A small minority of Internet posts said his presence had attracted cameras but did little to help the actual rescue work.

Critics also point out that Mr Wen did not earn his post by playing nice.

'It takes a considerable amount of political skill and cunning to become premier of China,' said Professor Fred Teiwes, a professor of Chinese politics at the University of Sydney in Australia.

Mr Wen - chief of staff to then-Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang during the Tiananmen crackdown - survived with his self-effacing obedience to newly installed party chief, Jiang Zemin, after Zhao was ousted.

NEW YORK TIMES, REUTERS, ASSOCIATED PRESS