¡¡¡¡EDS-RETRANSMISSION with date in date line changed from "Jan. 21" to "Jan. 22" ULAN BATOR, Jan. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- At least 24,000 head of livestock have starved or froze to death in Mongolia after hectares of meadows in the country are covered by thick snow caused by continuous precipitation, making it hard for the animalsto pasture, a local newspaper reported.

¡¡¡¡Most of the steppes in the provinces of Selenge, Hovsgol, Darhan-uul and Bulgan have already been covered by thick snow, andin Bulgan's grasslands, the snow is 20-35 centimeters deep. Temperatures in some pastoral areas have plunged to lows of minus 50 degrees Celsius.

¡¡¡¡The freezing weather and heavy snowfalls have affected some 660,000 herders. The government has sent working teams to the disaster-hit provinces to help local herdsmen in tiding over their difficulties.

¡¡¡¡Mongolia's livestock industry has been by and large privatized since the process began in 1990. During 1994-1999, Mongolia's livestock farming reported one of the best performances in historyfor six years running due to favorable weather conditions, and there were 33.5 million head of livestock at the end of 1999 in the country, hitting an all-time high in number.

¡¡¡¡But Mongolia has suffered droughts and snowstorms every year since 2000 and the number of domestic animals dropped by 9.81 million. Enditem