May 28 (Bloomberg) -- China began evacuating 80,000 people threatened by floods in Sichuan province as two aftershocks struck the region more than two weeks after the deadliest earthquake in 32 years.

A lake created by landslides at Tangjiashan threatens 33 townships, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported, citing quake relief headquarters in nearby Mianyang City. As many as 100,000 people have already been relocated. It may take between three and five days for soldiers to dig a sluice at the lake, Xinhua said.

``Chinese people are united together to fight hard against this disaster,'' Vice President Xi Jinping said today in a speech in Tianjin.

Landslides after the May 12 quake blocked rivers in Sichuan, causing 35 lakes to form that are threatening to burst their banks. Aftershocks yesterday injured more than 60 people and brought down 420,000 houses in Qingchuan County in Sichuan and Ninggiang in Shaanxi province, Xinhua said.

Four aftershocks of 4.5 magnitude or higher have hit the area since about 4 p.m. yesterday, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site. The strongest, a magnitude-5.7 quake, hit at 4:37 p.m. yesterday. The most recent was a 5-magnitude temblor at 1:35 a.m. today. A 6-magnitude quake in the area on May 25 killed eight people.

The death toll from the May 12 quake reached 68,109 people with 19,851 missing, the State Council Information Office's spokesman, Lu Guangjin, said today.

Clearing Debris

The 7.9-magnitude temblor two weeks ago injured 364,552 people. The quake affected more than 45.6 million people and about 15 million have been evacuated, Xinhua said. More than 5.2 million people were made homeless, the government said earlier.

About 600 military engineers and soldiers, using 29 excavators and bulldozers, are working to clear debris at the Tangjiashan lake, the biggest formed in Sichuan. The area is inaccessible by road and can be reached only on foot or by air.

The lake contains 130 million cubic meters (34 billion gallons) of water and was created when a part of a mountain collapsed into the Jianhe River. As many as 1.3 million people may be relocated if the lake is fully opened, Xinhua said.

Areas around the disaster zone may experience light rain through May 29, the China Meteorological Administration said today. Sichuan's rainy season will start next month.

The government has called for 3.3 million tents and said it will build 1.5 million temporary houses for survivors.

Donations Rise

Donations from abroad and at home amounted to 32.7 billion yuan ($4.7 billion), Guo said. More than 155 governments, non- government organizations and international bodies have pledged 1.9 billion yuan, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in Beijing yesterday. Of that 668 million yuan has been received.

Japan is considering a request for its military to send supplies to China, the Japanese government spokesman said today.

The Japanese military is a sensitive issue in China, where millions of people died at the hands of the Japanese Imperial Army before and during World War II. Tensions between the countries have eased since 2006 and a Chinese warship docked in Japan for the first time in the postwar era in November, a visit that may be reciprocated by a Japanese naval ship.

The May 12 earthquake was the most powerful to hit China, the world's most populous country, since a magnitude 8.6 quake struck Tibet in 1950, killing 1,526 people.

A 7.5 magnitude temblor in Tangshan in the northeast killed 250,000 in 1976, according to the USGS. China's seismology department said the Sichuan quake had a magnitude of 8.

To contact the reporters on this story: Dune Lawrence in Beijing at dlawrence6@bloomberg.net; Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 28, 2008 08:24 EDT