The death toll from China's earthquake rose to 65,080 today, with another 23,150 missing, a government spokesman said.

"As of noon on May 26, the earthquake has caused 65,080 deaths," Cabinet spokesman Guo Weimin said. The new toll was up nearly 2500 from the figure of 62,664 given yesterday.

Guo also said 360,058 people had been injured in China's worst earthquake in more than 30 years, which struck the southwestern province of Sichuan on May 12.

Another 14.38 million had been "transferred to temporary shelters," he added, while not specifying whether those people had been left homeless or were evacuated from quake-devastated areas.

The Government had said previously that more than five million had been made homeless by the quake.

Premier Wen Jiabao on Saturday had signalled fading hopes of finding any more survivors, saying during a trip to the destroyed town of Yingxiu that the death toll "may further climb to a level of 70,000, 80,000 or more".

Meanwhile, the death toll from a strong aftershock in southwestern China rose to eight today, with another 927 people injured, the government said.

The deaths were spread widely across the provinces of Sichuan, Gansu, Shaanxi and the large municipality of Chongqing, cabinet spokesman Guo Weimin told a press conference in Beijing.

Yesterday's aftershock was centred in quake-ravaged Sichuan and had a magnitude of 6.4 on the Richter scale.

It was the strongest of thousands of aftershocks in the region since an 8.0-magnitude quake on May 12 which left more than 88,000 people dead or missing.

State television had earlier reported one death in Sichuan's Guangyuan city yesterday, quoting a local disaster relief official.

Xinhua news agency said four deaths had occurred in the city of Hanzhong in northwestern Shaanxi province. One person was killed in the city of Longnan in northwest Gansu province by stones falling from a mountain, Xinhua reported.

It was not immediately clear where the other two deaths noted by the cabinet spokesman occurred.

The quake sent people fleeing from buildings across southwestern China and was felt as far away as the capital Beijing.