The quake, the worst since the disaster in the ancient city of Bam in December 2003, left thousands of people homeless braving sub-zero temperatures and heavy rain and snow.

"Operations to recover bodies and evacuate the wounded has ended," said the governor of the stricken Kerman province, Mohammad Ali Karimi.

A spokesman for the governor, Ali Komsari, said Thursday evening that 549 people are known to have died but that the final figure could still go higher.

He did not give an updated figure on those injured, but Karimi had earlier put it at 900.

The 6.4 magnitude quake struck before dawn on Tuesday, levelling mud-brick houses in dozens of villages and affecting an estimated 30,000 people in the Zarand region north of the provincial capital of Kerman.

Rescue efforts were initially hampered by the severe weather conditions and blocked roads in the stricken areas, leading to angry protests from villagers who did not receive emergency aid.

Karimi said all affected zones had now received basic supplies such as blankets, tents and food, while power, water and telephone links had already been restored to many of the affected villages.

But residents of the devastated villages were also struggling to cope with the emotional trauma of the disaster, particularly children.

"Why are people dying one after another? What is God punishing us for?" seven-year-old Mohammad Hossein asked his father Mehdi after the quake first hit.

"I didn't know what to tell him. And you can't hide the bodies," said Mehdi.

Hundreds of rescue workers and soldiers were forced to search through the ruins of the mountain villages with their hands as blocked roads made it impossible for heavy earthmoving equipment to reach some villages.

Some 8,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed in the Zarand district and at least two villages were razed by the force of the quake.

Houtkan and Dahuyeh were the remotest villages struck by the quake which left both in ruins, and among the last where search operations were underway on Thursday.

In Dahuyeh, villagers were buried alive in the mosque where they had gathered for morning prayers. But in Houtkan, two young women were pulled out alive on Wednesday.

President Mohammad Khatami, whose government is facing protests from stricken villagers at the delay in aid reaching some of the most devastated areas, said Wednesday Iran would accept international help if offered.

"We are not calling for aid (from abroad) but we will accept it as we did before (after the Bam disaster)," he said.

The Bam earthquake of December 2003 killed more than 30,000 people and destroyed the city's ancient mud-brick citadel.

US President George W. Bush, who has warned of possible military action against Iran over its nuclear activities, was among those offering help for quake victims, along with Turkey, Japan, Germany and China.

And foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Thursday: "If needed, we will accept (aid), and this also applies to the US."

Iran and the United States have had no diplomatic relations since soon after the 1979 Islamic revolution. Tehran derides Washington as the "great Satan", while US President George W. Bush has said that the Islamic regime is part of an "axis of evil".

In 1981, 2,328 people were killed in two earthquakes in Kerman province.

Iran sits astride several major faults in the earth's crust, and is prone to violent earthquakes which killed some 170,000 people in about 20 quakes during the 20th century.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.