The country's disaster management ministry estimated that one million people had been hit by the flooding. Of those, about 150,000 were stranded, ministry spokesman Golam Kibria told AFP.

However, flood waters were expected to recede this week, Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre director Saiful Hossain told AFP.

Hossain said Bangladesh was unlikely to be affected by more major flooding this monsoon season, which runs to the end of September.

"We are at the last part of the monsoon season and there's almost no possibility of other flooding for the rest of the month," he said.

Interim government head Fakhruddin Ahmed visited affected areas in central Bangladesh on Sunday and distributed relief among the victims.

Bangladesh is criss-crossed by a network of 230 rivers, most of them tributaries of the Ganges and Brahmaputra.

The low-lying country suffers annual floods, with at least a fifth of it submerged each year.

In July and August last year, flooding killed more than 1,000 people and some 40 percent of the country was under water, forcing millions to flee their homes.

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