Mu sketched out houses on his sheet of paper, depicting chimneys that billowed spirals of smoke in a cold winter.

Among the visitors to the village's makeshift school in Leigu town of Beichuan county in Sichuan province on Sunday was World Bank President Robert Zoellick, who finally managed to elicit a shy smile from Mu.

The boy was probably also unaware that this man who made him smile was part of ongoing efforts to help bring his drawings of new homes to life.

Zoellick, who arrived in the country on Saturday for a four-day visit to discuss the current global financial crisis with Chinese officials, was also meeting Sichuan Party chief Liu Qibao to discuss how the World Bank could help the province rebuild areas devastated by the 8-magnitude May 12 quake that left more than 69,000 dead.

The bank's board is already considering a $710-million emergency loan plan for Sichuan and Gansu, another quake-hit province, Zoellick said. The fund would be used to build roads, schools and clinics in disaster-hit regions.

"We looking forward to working with you and will try to help you," Zoellick told local Sichuan officials.

"I've seen terrible destruction and horrible tragedy for many people. But I can also see that reconstruction has begun and, in villages like this, people are well taken care of," he said.

About 200 km from provincial capital Chengdu, Leigu town has a population of 18,000. Of these, 3,000 residents died in the quake, said township office head Wang Shunping.

About 18,000 quake victims are still missing and most of them may ultimately be registered as dead according to the law, Sichuan Party chief Liu said.

Most of the area's houses toppled in the tremor and poor farmers reportedly had to borrow heavily to reconstruct their homes. Outside of 4-year-old Mu's classroom, patches of temporary housing were put up after the quake.

In the Beichuan county seat, most buildings had caved in and were damaged so seriously that residents had to move to neighboring counties, said Jing Dazhong, the county chief. Only a narrow, bumpy road cleared of rock and rubble was available to lead visitors into the heart of the county.

Along the road laid a 4-m-high boulder, one of the largest that had fallen from the slopes during the quake. It was marked "5.12" and served as a monument for victims of the May 12 disaster. Zoellick later laid flowers at the monument as tribute to those who had died in the disaster.

"The disaster is far beyond the comprehension of people outside China," Zoellick said.

"Before the earthquake, all the mountainsides were green with trees," Jing said.

"Some of these areas have become gray and bare from the repeated mudslides following the quake," he said.

One of the most urgent tasks at hand is for quake survivors to have temporary housing to face winter, Jing said.

"We have made plans to ensure that quake victims have enough food, clothing and quilts for the winter," Sichuan Party chief Liu Qibao said.

Permanent homes are the top priority for the longer term but challenges remain, Jing said.

"We need to rebuild our homes, which is our No 1 concern, but we also need more financial support for the rest of reconstruction," Jing said.

Post-quake rebuilding in Sichuan may cost as much as 1.7 trillion yuan ($249 billion), with about 33 million people having been affected, Liu said.

More than 1.3 trillion yuan remains to be collected, he said.

The province also needs to build 1.91 million houses for farmers and 670,000 houses for urban residents, Jing said. At least 1,300 medical institutions and 3,000 schools would also need to be constructed.

"We'll try to complete those projects within three years," he said.

"But the biggest problem is lack of funding," he said.