PM says this is worst crisis for Japan since World War II

Japan''s Prime Minister said on Sunday that the earthquake and tsunami that hit the country on Friday is the worst crisis it has had to face since the end of the second world war.

"In the 65 years after the end of World War II this is the toughest, most difficult crisis for Japan," Naoto Kan told reporters in Tokyo.

The death toll in Japan''s earthquake and was likely exceed 10,000 in one state alone, an official said, as millions of survivors were left without drinking water, electricity and proper food along the pulverized northeastern coast.

Although the government doubled the number of soldiers deployed in the aid effort to 100,000, it seemed overwhelmed by what''s turning out to be a triple disaster: Friday''s quake and tsunami damaged two nuclear reactors at a power plant on the coast, and at least one of them appeared to be going through a partial meltdown, raising fears of a radiation leak.

The nuclear crisis intensified Sunday as authorities raced to combat the threat of multiple reactor meltdowns and more than 170,000 people evacuated the quake- and tsunami-savaged northeastern coast where fears spread over possible radioactive contamination.

Nuclear plant operators were frantically trying to keep temperatures down in a series of nuclear reactors - including one where officials feared a partial meltdown could be happening Sunday - to prevent the disaster from growing worse.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano also said Sunday that a hydrogen explosion could occur at Unit 3 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, the latest reactor to face a possible meltdown.

That follows a blast the day before in the power plant''s Unit 1, as operators attempted to prevent a meltdown there by injecting sea water into it.

More than 170,000 people had been evacuated as a precaution, though Edano said the radioactivity released into the environment so far was so small it didn''t pose any health threats.

Edano said operators were trying to cool and decrease the pressure in the Unit 3 reactor, just as they had the day before at Unit 1.

At least 1.4 (m) million households had gone without water since the quake struck and some 2.5 (m) million households were without electricity.

"My water is cut off," said Kenji Fukuda, who lives in the rural town of Sukugawa. It "is a little bit rural and there is natural well water. We take it and put it through the water purifier and warm it up and use it in various ways," he said.

Temperatures were to dip near freezing overnight, but the prime minister warned that electricity would not be restored for days.

The government says it has sent 120,000 blankets, 120,000 bottles of water and 110,000 litres of gasoline in addition to bread, rice balls, instant cup noodles and diapers to the affected areas.

Large areas of the countryside remained surrounded by water and unreachable.

Fuel stations were closed and people were running out of gasoline for their vehicles.