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BEIJING, Jan. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- Storm tides and other marine disasters cost China 5.4 billion yuan in direct economic losses in 2004, with 140 people left dead or missing, China's State Oceanic Administration said here Sunday.

"The situation of marine disasters was normal last year and storm tides are still the main cause of ocean disasters," said the administration in a report on marine disasters in 2004.

The economic losses in 2004 drastically dropped compared with that in 2003, when the figure stood at eight billion yuan.

In 2004, China's coastal areas was hit by 10 Typhoon and eight extra tropical storm tides, causing direct economic losses of 5.2 billion yuan and leaving 49 people dead or missing.

Meanwhile, the coastal seas recorded 35 over four-meter-high waves, resulting direct economic losses of 207 million yuan and leaving 91 people dead or missing, according to the report.

The report also showed that 96 red currents occurred in China'scoastal seas, with more than 20 of them caused by toxic algae covering about 7,000 square kilometers. However, the tides of toxic algae only cost 65,000 yuan in economic losses.

In 2004, five cases of oil spilling were recorded in China's territorial waters, with the one caused by collision of two foreign container ships at the mouth of the Pearl River in south China's Guangdong Province in last December as the most serious one. Enditem