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Rescue teams in China's Sichuan province are struggling to reach survivors of a powerful 6.6-magnitude earthquake in remote hill villages, with debris blocking roads.

Dressed in bright orange uniforms, they could be seen moving up mountain paths on foot on Sunday.

Soldiers worked all night to search villages and treat the injured, while local people slept in shelters or cars.

The quake has left 203 dead or missing and has injured some 11,500.

The latest figures were given by China's Ministry of Civil Affairs, quoted by Xinhua. It said 960 of the injured were in serious condition.

China's new Premier, Li Keqiang, told state media from a tent in the disaster zone: "The rescue effort is our first duty."

Villages close to the epicentre in Lushan county were left in ruins. At least 1,100 aftershocks followed the quake, which struck at 08:02 local time (00:02 GMT) on Saturday.

"It was as if the mountain was alive," a 68-year-old woman with a broken arm, who had lost her home, told AFP news agency at a Lushan hospital.

Japan has set aside its disputes with China to offer any help that is required.

Beijing said overseas assistance was not needed at the moment but that it would contact Tokyo if that changed.

Chen Yong, the vice-director of the Ya'an city government earthquake response office, said the death toll may not rise much more.

"We understand the situation in most areas. Most of the casualties have been reported. In some remote mountain areas, it is possible that we don't fully understand the situation," he said.

Ambulances, fire engines and military lorries piled high with supplies were waiting in long lines along blocked roads in the province on Sunday.

Correspondents say the hill villages, where farmers grow rice, vegetables and corn on terraced plots, were hit the hardest.

Soldiers rescued this injured woman

Kevin Xia, of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said: "Supplies have had difficulty getting into the region because of the traffic jams. Most of our supplies are still on the way."

In one village in Baoxing county, Longmen, nearly all the buildings were destroyed, officials said.

Rescuers were forced to dynamite boulders that had fallen across some roads, while overnight rain slowed rescue work, according to state media.

A military vehicle carrying 17 soldiers plummeted over a cliff. One soldier was killed and others injured.

Mr Li, who arrived on Saturday afternoon by helicopter to direct rescue efforts, visited hospitals and tents, and climbed on a pile of rubble to view the devastation, Xinhua reports.

"The first 72 hours is the golden period for rescue," he told officials. "We cannot delay by a minute."

Tens of thousands of people spent the night in tents or cars, unable to return home or too afraid to go back because of the aftershocks.

Sichuan province was devastated by a massive quake five years ago. Tens of thousands of people were killed and five million lost their homes.

Many of the collapsed buildings were schools and nurseries, leading to widespread criticism of local government's planning policies.

But Mr Chen said that this had not happened this time.

"The Chinese government has put a lot of money into building schools and hospitals. I can guarantee that no schools collapsed," he told Reuters.