Chinese troops are rushing to repair cracks in a dam that was damaged by a mammoth 7.9 quake earlier this week.

The Chinese government said the quake caused "extremely dangerous" cracks in the Zipingpu Dam upriver from the hard-hit city of Dujiangyan.

The government also said a number of smaller dams were also damaged.

About 2,000 troops were rushed to the Zipingpu Dam, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

He Biao, the director of the Aba Disaster Relief headquarters in northern Sichuan province, said there were concerns about a number of dams near the quake's epicenter in central China.

"Currently, the most dangerous problems are several reservoirs near Wenchuan," he said, according to published reports.

"There are already serious problems with the Tulong Reservoir on the Min River. It may collapse. If that happens, it would affect several power plants below and be extremely dangerous," he said.

© 2008 Newsroom.