MIANYANG, Sichuan -- The water level has almost reached the lowest point of a drainage sluice Friday morning at the Tangjiashan "quake lake" in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

    The surface of the "quake lake" in Beichuan County, Mianyang City had risen to 739.44 meters as of 10 a.m., which was only 0.56 m below the sluice, according to the lake control headquarters.

    "It is estimated that the water level will slowly rise to the sluice after 4 p.m.," said Rao Xiping, head of the Beichuan station of the Mianyang Municipal Hydrology Bureau.

    Currently, the weather was fine in the area, he said.

    It was expected the lake, which holds more than 200 million cubic meters of water, would start draining as soon as the water reached the lowest point of the drainage sluice.

    Rao and a small group of experts on hydrology and communications have stayed at Tangjiashan for days to monitor the situation.

    More than 600 armed police and soldiers left after digging a 475-m channel to divert water from the lake, which is inaccessible by road and can only be reached by foot or air.

    More than 250,000 people in low-lying areas in Mianyang have been relocated under a plan based on the assumption that a third of the lake volume breached its banks.

    Two other plans require the relocation of 1.2 million people if half the lake volume is