BEIJING, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu called on local authorities to keep close watch over the approaching typhoon Chanchu, saying that the protection of life and property must be given top priority in disaster relief.

    "People in disaster-hit areas must be guaranteed food, clean drinking water, clothes, accommodation and medical services," said Hui, who is also director of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, at a meeting here Tuesday afternoon.

    He demanded that local governments give financial and material support to typhoon-hit areas and mobilize all available resources to ensure basic necessities of life for people stricken by the disaster.

    The vice premier also cautioned local governments to take precautions in advance of strong winds, flash floods, landslides.

    "We must try our best to minimize the losses caused by the typhoon," he said.

    Chanchu is approaching south China's Guangdong Province, with its center located about 640 kilometers south of the booming city Shenzhen Tuesday morning.

    The center of the typhoon was located at 16.8 degrees north latitude and 114.9 degrees east longitude at 8:00 a.m. Tuesday and is expected to move northward at 15 to 20 kilometers per hour overthe next 24 hours, said the meteorological station in Guangzhou.

    It said the maximum wind speed at its center was 45 meters per second, or 162 kilometers an hour. It reached 14 on the wind scale.

    The typhoon may land at the coastal regions between Shenzhen and Raoping County Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning, but it may bypass Guangdong and move toward Fujian Province or the Taiwan Strait instead, said Huang Zhong, chief weatherman at the Guangzhou station.

    He said the typhoon will cause high seas off Guangdong Province as well as rainstorms in most parts of the province and south of the Pearl River Delta starting Tuesday night.

    The storm is expected to last until Thursday, he added.

    Fujian and Hainan provinces are also preparing for the typhoon,which is the earliest and probably the strongest to hit South China this time of the year.

    Hainan Province has cancelled sea and rail passenger transport between the island province and Guangdong.

    Named 'Chanchu', which means "pearl", the storm formed in the Pacific Ocean about 550 km to the east of Mindanao island in the Philippines on May 9. It slammed into central Philippines on Saturday, killing at least 32 people and leaving more than 1,000 others homeless. Enditem